[Breast-specific gamma imaging in breast cancer]

Breast-specific gamma imaging (BSGI) is a new technique in nuclear medicine for the diagnosis of breast cancer. After intravenous injection of the radioactive substance 99mTc-sestamibi the breasts are imaged with a gamma camera. The radionuclide assimilates into intracellular mitochondria, which are present in greater numbers in breast cancer cells than in normal cells. This causes a relatively high uptake of the radionuclide in tumours. Along with mammography and ultrasound, MRI is the current gold standard in breast imaging diagnostics. However, MRI is a complex and expensive procedure and has low specificity leading to high false-positive rates. BSGI has equally high sensitivity but is more specific, cheaper and much simpler to interpret. BSGI could replace MRI as a complementary technique to show, exclude or indicate the extent of breast cancer.