Usefulness of radionuclide scan for staging non-small cell bronchogenic carcinoma

Eighty-one patients with non-small cell bronchogenic carcinoma are retrospectively reviewed. The sensitivity of bone scans was 100% and 90.4% specificity and it detected six asymptomatic patients. Bone metastases were also correlated to rise in serum alkaline phosphatase. Brain scans detected no evidence of metastases in two cases that were positive by use of head computed tomography scan. Both of these patients had normal neurologic findings at presentation. Thus we conclude that bone scanning had great value in detecting metastases even in clinically negative patients, and brain and liver scanning were not useful in our patients population. (author)