Literature Review of the Use of Scintimammography with Technetium-99m Methoxyisobutylisonitrile (99mTc-MIBI) for the Differential Diagnosis of Breast Carcinoma

Abstract

Mammography has proven to be quite sensitive in detecting breast lesions, but frequently it cannot be used to accurately differentiate benign from malignant lesions. Many breast cancer experts believe that a better diagnostic imaging tool is needed, given that an estimated 700,000 breast biopsies are done every year, with only 1 out of 4 finding cancer. Many other imaging techniques have been studied. The scintimammography using Technetium-^99m MIBI is a technique that has been studied over the last few years. The results obtained with these studies suggest that the scintimammography is a promising tool for diagnosing cancer. In this article we describe the technical aspects of scintimammography as proposed by Khalkhali ⁽¹¹⁾ and present the results of several studies published about this new non-invasive test.