Nuclear imaging in breast cancer

Abstract

Nuclear imaging of the breast shows physiological changes that usually are due to malignancies. These changes are detectable earlier than those visible on other imaging modalities. Recent advances in functional breast imaging have given us promising new tools - positron emission mammography and breast-specific gamma imaging - that combine the advantages of functional imaging with a finer resolution than that of positron emission tomography and scintimammography. If its promises bear out, breast-specific functional imaging will provide a powerful new tool in the fight against breast cancer and will assume a larger role in the coming years.