Clinical significance of preoperative liver scintigraphy in gastric cancer.

The surgical and liver scintigraphic findings were compared for evaluation of preoperative diagnostic value in 146 cases of gastric carcinoma. Correct diagnosis was found in 95% with a false negative rate of 2.7% and a false positive rate of 27%. In all the false negative cases, the size of all space-occupying lesions within the liver was less than 3 cm. in diameter. In view of the high percentage of correct diagnosis (95%), we believe that the preoperative liver scintigraphy is very useful clinically. Furthermore, we documented that liver metastasis is a late complication of gastric cancer and suggest that new diagnostic tools are needed to assess the presence of nodal metastasis, serosal infiltration and peritoneal dissemination.