title: The value of serial bone scanning in operable breast cancer.
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.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001365:Axilla; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000556:secondary*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008408:Mastectomy; D008875:Middle Aged; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging