Usefulness of 99mTc-sestamibi scintigraphy in breast cancer. Results of a multicentric study in 239 patients

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of 99m-Tc-sestamibi scintimammography (SMM) in the detection of T1-2, N0-1, M0 breast cancer (BC). Methods: One hundred and ninety-three (80.7%) patients with palpable (>10 mm) and 46 (19.3%) with non-palpable breast masses underwent both mammography (MG) and SMM, 1–7 days before surgery. The final diagnosis confirmed cancer (pT1a=10 [2.9%], pT1b=51 [24.6%], pT1c=104 [50.3%], pT2=46 [22.2%]) in 207 (86.6%) patients and benign lesions in 32 (13.4%). Moreover, 62 (30.0%) patients had axillary lymph node involvement (N1). Results: Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, accuracy and efficacy of MG and SMM in the detection of BC were value, accuracy and efficacy of MG and SMM in the detection of BC were 89.5% and 86.6% vs 86.6%, respectively. A significant (P<0.01) difference in the size of the tumour between patients with true positive and false negative SMM and MG was found. Conclusions: In patients with suspiciousMGundergoing biopsy,SMMshould be considered as an additional non-invasive procedure on account of its high sensitivity and PPV and may be helpful in the surgical planning.