[Is bone scan useful in patients with breast cancer localized on the basis of clinical examination. 143 cases (author's transl)].

The authors present 143 cases of breast carcinoma T1 and T2, N0, N1, N2 and N3 without clinical signs of bone metastasis. They study the value of bone scintigraphy with technetium 99m labelled diphosphonates. One hundred and twelve patients had normal bone scans; 31 patiets showed abnormal fixation sites: in 23 (16%) benign bone lesions explained the increase of the bone radioactivity, in 8 cases, scintigraphy was considered to be consistent with diagnosis of bone metastasis. Metastasis has been proved in only 3 cases within a period of 2 years. The detection rate cannot be better than 5,6 per cent. Considering 50 per cent at least of these patients will eventually develop bone metastasis, the false negative rate will be about 45 per cent. Routine bone scan does not seem to be useful for patients with T1 and T2 breast cancer.