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Scintimammography: an adjunctive test for the detection of breast cancer
Objective:
To describe the diagnostic utility of scintimammography in patients with a breast mass, including patients who have undergone previous breast surgery or radiotherapy.
Design:
Descriptive outcome study.
Setting:
A university teaching hospital and a private hospital breast clinic in New South Wales.
Subjects:
115 consecutively referred women investigated by x-ray mammography and scintimammography before surgical excision biopsy of a breast mass.
Main Outcome Measures:
Sensitivity and specificity of x-ray mammography and scintimammography in the detection of breast cancer overall, and in women who had or had not undergone previous breast surgery.
Results:
44 (38%) patients had undergone previous breast surgery or external beam radiotherapy, including nine with bilateral silicone breast implants. The overall (n = 115) sensitivity for the detection of breast cancer with scintimammography was 84%, compared with 66% for x-ray mammography (P = 0.004), and the respective specificities were 84% and 67% (P = 0.194). For patients who had a history of previous breast surgery, the respective sensitivities of the two tests were 83% and 50% (P = 0.006), compared with 85% and 73% (P = 0.087) for patients who had had no previous surgery.
Conclusions:
Scintimammography offers additional diagnostic advantage in the detection of breast cancer in patients who have had previous breast surgery or local radiotherapy.