Thallium-201 scintigraphy in evaluation of breast masses

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate thallium-201 as a tumor seeking agent in patients with breast cancer. Forty-five female patients [20-67 years of age] with breast complaints were included in this study. After clinical examination, mammography and thallium-201 scintigraphy were performed and all cases were inspected pathologically to confirm the findings of both techniques. The results revealed that thallium-201 scintigraphy can reliably detect primary tumors of the breast with a high degree of sensitivity in group A which included 35 patients with no prior history of breast cancer. As 21 patients were found to have malignant breast lesions pathologically, the scintigraphic technique revealed only two false-negative cases out of them [sensitivity 90.4%, specificity 85.7% and accuracy 94.3%]