title: The role of general nuclear medicine in breast cancer.
abstract: The rising incidence of breast cancer worldwide has prompted many improvements to current care. Routine nuclear medicine is a major contributor to a full gamut of clinical studies such as early lesion detection and stratification; guiding, monitoring, and predicting response to therapy; and monitoring progression, recurrence or metastases. Developments in instrumentation such as the high-resolution dedicated breast device coupled with the diagnostic versatility of conventional cameras have reinserted nuclear medicine as a valuable tool in the broader clinical setting. This review outlines the role of general nuclear medicine, concluding that targeted radiopharmaceuticals and versatile instrumentation position nuclear medicine as a powerful modality for patients with breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Lacey R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Greene
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, Wheeling Jesuit University Wheeling, West Virginia.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
keywords: Bone scan; SPECT; breast cancer; scintimammography; sentinel node