Scintimammography and the Effectivity in Breast Canser Diagnosis

Breast cancer is the most common cancer, one of 8 women will develop breast cancer during life. Early diagnosis is very important and can improve survival time and reduce mortality. Microcalcifications is sometimes the only indication of the presence of breast cancer. Mammography is the accepted diagnostic technique to detect breast anomalies. But mammography has low specificity in the diagnosis of breast cancer. The radiologist can not always distinguish between benign and malignant microcalcifications and needed else diagnostic, noninvazive technique. Scintimammography is a tecqunice that radiopharmaceuticals are absorved at higher rates by malignant cells. Several studies have investigated the usefulness of scintimammography but only one (Marini et al.) study was like our study. Material and Method: Scintimammography was performed fiftyfour women (4 bilateraly) with isolated microcalcifications in their mammograms. Fifteen women had final histopathologic diagnoses ( 8 benign and 7 malignant). The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and diagnostic accurracy were calculated. Results: In our study the sensitivity (% 47) and specificity (% 86) of scintimammography was lower than the studies of Marini et al. Discussion: In microcalcification with a low mammographic suspicion of malignancy (BI-RADS 1) scintimammography could be inhibited of unnecessary biopsies. But microcalcification with intermediate suspicion of malignancy (BIRADS 2) scintimammography had high false positive fraction. Unnecessary biopsies can be performed. In microcalcification with a high mammographic suspicion of malignancy (BIRADS 3) scintimammography could be use to detect the possible presence of multifocal or bilateral cancer.