The value of serial bone scanning in operable breast cancer

✍ Scribed by I. J. Monypenny; R. J. Grieve; A. Howell; J. M. Morrison

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 303 KB
• Volume: 71
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0007-1323
• DOI: 10.1002/bjs.1800710622

✦ Synopsis

Abstract
The value of initial and serial isotope bone scans was assessed in 685 patients with operable primary breast cancer. Nineteen (2·8 per cent) patients had a positive initial scan and negative skeletal radiographs; only nine of these developed other evidence of metastatic disease after a mean follow up of 21 months. Five hundred and ten patients had serial scans up to five years after simple mastectomy; 51 (10 per cent) had scan conversion, of whom 37 developed clinical or radiological confirmation of recurrent disease at a mean follow-up of 13 months. Compared with clinical or radiological methods for the detection of first metastases serial bone scans gave a mean lead time of five months in 15 patients and no lead time in the remaining 22 patients. Twelve of forty-five patients with radiologically proven bone metastases had negative scans. Neither initial or serial bone scanning is clinically useful or economically viable as a routine screening or follow-up procedure for patients with operable breast cancer.