Clinical assessment of radionuclide bone scanning in 50 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Objective: It is an evaluation of radionuclide bone scan in detecting bone metastases in the patients with the nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The ratio of bone metastases and the locations commonly involved were also investigated. Method: The 99mTc-MDP bone scan was performed in 50 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Result: Bone metastases was revealed in 32 patients out of 50, including 32 squamous cell carcinoma and 1 undifferentiated carcinoma. The metastases occurred in vertebral column, rib, pelvis, extremities, and skull in 90.6%, 56.3%, 59.4%, 43.8% and 28.1% patients respectively. Conclusion: Radionuclide bone scan is helpful in diagnosis, prognosing and treatment designing of nasopharyngeal carcinoma