Breast Cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer accounts for more than 20% of all malignancies in women. It is the second most common cause of death in women after lung cancer. Main histological types are ductal and lobular carcinoma. Diagnosis is most frequently obtained by mammography in early stage (tumors less than 2–3 cm, with clinically negative axillary lymph nodes). Due to its relatively low spatial resolution and potentially high rate of false-positive results, ¹⁸F-FDG PET has no role in breast cancer screening or diagnosis [1]. False-positive findings may also depend on prior biopsy. However, some studies have shown that ¹⁸F-FDG uptake correlates with proliferation and some other prognostic factors [2]. The diagnostic performance of ¹⁸F-FDG PET in staging the status of the axilla is inferior to the one of sentinel lymph node biopsy [3]. Whole-body ¹⁸F-FDG PET to discover metastases is recommended at presentation in patients with high-risk locally advanced breast cancer and/or later clinical stage, as well as in the presence of suspicious relapse or in clarifying equivocal findings reported by other diagnostic methods [4]. In particular, it has been demonstrated that ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT, also because of the complementary role of CT, is superior to bone scanning in detecting lytic and intramedullary metastases, although inferior in the detection of primarily osteoblastic lesions.