The value of liver scintigraphy in the management of patients with suspected gastric cancer. A prospective, consecutive study.

Patients with gastric cancer and liver metastases are believed not to benefit from gastric resection. In 43 patients with strong suspicion of--or proven--gastric cancer, fit for elective, radical surgery, preoperative liver scintigraphy was performed, in an attempt to select patients with liver metastases before laparotomy. Liver scintigraphy identified 6 out of 7 patients with metastases. One patient with massive steatosis had a false-positive scintigram. Percutaneous scan-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy verified 4 true positive scintigrams. True-positive scintigrams in 2 patients heralded a change in the planned treatment. We consider that a preoperative liver scintigraphy in a population thus selected is beneficial in the planning of treatment: only patients with a negative scan-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy should be operated upon.