Radioimmune imaging of bone marrow in patients with suspected bone metastases from primary breast cancer.

Radioimmune imaging of bone marrow was performed by technetium-99m- (99mTc) labeled antigranulocyte monoclonal antibody BW 250/183 (AGMoAb) scans in 32 patients with suspected bone metastases from primary breast cancer. AGMoAb scans showed bone marrow defects in 25/32 (78%) patients; bone invasion was subsequently confirmed in 23 (72%) patients. Conventional bone scans performed within the same week detected bone metastases in 17/32 (53%) patients (p less than 0.001). AGMoAb scans detected more sites indicating metastatic disease than bone scans in 12 of these 17 patients (71%). All patients with bone metastases in the axial skeleton had bone marrow defects at least at the sites of bone metastases. Of 15 patients with normal, or indicative of, benign disease bone scans, 8 patients (53%) presented with bone marrow defects in the AGMoAb scans. Bone invasion was confirmed in six of them. AGMoAb bone marrow scans provide a method for the early detection of bone metastatic invasion in patients with breast cancer and suspected bone metastases.