The role of nuclear medicine in breast cancer detection - Functional breast imaging

In the world's industrialized nations, breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. It is second only to lung cancer and cancer-related mortality Early detection is the best means of improving survival. Mammography represents the foundation of breast imaging and maintains the central role in breast imaging techniques applied to breast cancer surveillance. In the past decade, functional breast imaging including MR imaging, digital mammography, and scintimammography using single photon emission tomography and positron emission tomography has improved the sensitivity and specificity of conventional mammography for the detection of breast cancer. The higher specificity of scintimammography is feeding current enthusiasm for the study of its role in early detection, complementing mammography and indeterminate lesions and noninvasive axillary staging. A comprehensive review of the use of the radionuclide techniques applied to breast cancer surveillance is described in this article.