[Skeletal scintigraphy in the care of breast cancer . Long-term follow-up over 8 years].

In a retrospective study 1704 whole-body bone scans of 807 female and 7 male patients with breast cancer performed from 1974 to 1981 were reevaluated considering the incidence of bone metastases in staging and follow-up, the response of metastatic uptake to treatment as well as sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic procedure. The yield of positive bone scans in staging was 23.7% at all and depended on T stage with a comparably high incidence of 8.8% in stage T1 and T2. Subsequently within 6 years follow-up further 26% were developing bone metastases. The long time response of known metastases to treatment was ambient, 65% of the scans found without some essential change. The incidence of bone metastases combined with a calculated sensitivity of 93% and specificity of 91% is justifying the use of bone scans in every stage and every phase of assessing breast cancer.