Preoperative nuclear scans in patients with melanoma

One hundred forty-one liver scans, 137 brain scans, and 112 bone scans were performed in 192 patients with clinical Stage 1 melanoma. One liver scan was interpreted as abnormal; liver biopsy of that patient showed no metastasis. There were 11 suggestive liver scans; three of the patients with suggestive liver scans had negative liver biopsies. The remaining eight patients were followed from 4 to 6 years and none of those patients developed clinical evidence of hepatic metastases. All of the brain scans were normal. Five patients had suggestive bone scans and none of those patients had manifested symptoms of osseous metastases with a follow-up of 2 to 4.5 years. This study demonstrates that the use of preoperative liver, brain and bone scan in the evaluation of patients with clinical Stage 1 melanoma is virtually unproductive.