Scintimammography (SMM) in breast cancer patients

The author retrospectively reviewed the scintimammography (SMM) using 201Tl and/or 99mTc-MIBI in 45 breast cancer patients. 36 cases with 37 intact breast masses and another 9 cases with previous excision of the masses were studied. The sensitivity for the detection of the primary breast cancer was 92 per cent and that of ipsilateral axillary lymph node metastasis was only 48 per cent. SMM is helpful for the diagnosis of breast cancer and differentiating malignant from benign masses, thus improving the accuracy of routine mammography. In postoperative cases SMM is helpful to detect palpable local tumor recurrence and axillary node metastasis but it is not accurate enough for assessing the extent of microscopic tumor involvement locally and also distant metastasis. Thus, it is not recommended to use SMM alone for staging of breast cancer.