Diagnostics of metastatic skeletal lesions in breast cancer patients with the use of 3D NLS-graphy and bone scanning

Skeletal system is the most frequent localization area of distant metastases in case of breast cancer (BC). Metastases in bones develop in 30-80% of breast cancer patients in the course of the disease. Bones are affected in the first place in 26-50% of patients who suffer from disseminated form of the disease. According to the information available the mostly affected areas are: vertebral column and pelvic bones. At the same time the risk of metastatic skeletal affection is high in case of generalized stages of disease; in case of I-II stage of disease the risk does not exceed 2.6%. That is why routine skeletal screening examination aimed at the detection of metastases in early disease patients with no clinical symptoms of bones affection is considered as unreasonable. Bone scan is usually used as a screening method in patients with common form of disease or upon availability of clinical data confirming bones affection. However bone scanning results are frequently uncertain due to low specificity of the method; also such method is not good at detection of lytic metastases. Roentgenologic research meth-