The role of routine followup bone scans after definitive therapy of localized prostatic cancer

The records of 100 patients with localized prostatic cancer were examined retrospectively in an effort to determine the usefulness of routine 99mtechnetium bone scans following definitive therapy with 125iodine implantation or external beam irradiation. With a mean followup of 47 months per patient 19 per cent of these patients had positive scans and an additional 15 per cent had scans that were considered equivocal. Of the 100 patients none had a positive scan in the absence of either an elevated serum acid phosphatase or bone pain. In our series the low incidence of positive scans as the sole evidence of disease progression does not support its routine use after definitive therapy for localized carcinoma of the prostate.