Bone radioisotope scanning: usefulness in the evaluation and observation of patients with breast cancer in clinical stage II, III, IV

The clinical records of 420 patients with diagnosis of breast cancer well documented by the pathological anatomy in clinical stage II, III and IV were reviewed. In each one of them has been done at least a bone scanning during the diagnosis. In 52 cases carried out sericeous dosages of CA 15-3 and in some cases it was necessary to administer Samarium-153 EDTMP as palliative therapy of bone pain. The presence of secondary gamma-graphic focuses was 0/84 cases (0%) in clinical stage II, 54/265 cases (20%) in III and 41/91 cases (45%) in IV. The one focus appeared in 6.7% of the cases. In 7 of the 52 cases that received sericeous dosages of CA 15-3 were detected secondary osseous lesions, and 5 of them presented a marker elevation. The bone scanning has shown in many cases the presence of getters focuses in singular places of skeleton, urinary excretory system or mammary tissue. The gamma rays from Sm-153 allowed us to get some appropriate basal views post-therapy of the secondary lesions. The results show that the great incidence of secondary lesions in the skeleton occurred in cases of stages III and IV unlike other countries. The serial repetition of the radioisotope scanning. The presence of one focus in the skeleton of a patient with a well-known neoplasia makes us to do a careful evaluation of the focus nature. The presence of tracer accumulation in the kidney, ureter and bladder allows us to infer the pathology of excretory system that is the first evidence of its presence in many cases. (author). 71 refs., 7 figs., 6 tabs