Quantitative Analysis of 99mTc-MDP SPECT-CT Data in Diagnosing Bone Metastases in Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

Background: In patients with advanced breast cancer (BC), distant metastases happen mainly in the skeleton. This study aimed to investigate the role of 99mTc-MDP SPECT/CT in the differential diagnosis of malignant bone lesions from degenerative benign bone diseases in female BC patients. Methods and Results: The study included 39 female BC patients who underwent a baseline 99mTc-MDP SPECT/CT bone scans. After lesion detection, a quantitative radiotracer uptake analysis was conducted, and the standardized uptake value (SUVmax) was identified in each patient, and the data were then statistically analyzed. SUVmax values were significantly higher in BC patients with malignant metastasis than in patients with degenerative changes (33.04±15.3 vs. 13.25±5.46 g/mL, P<0.05). The SUVmax cut-off value of 22.75 g/mL (25th percentile) obtained through box plot analysis can help to discriminate metastatic from degenerative lesions. The logistic regression analysis indicated that the SUVmax was a significant predictor of metastatic BL (P<0.001, OR = 159.90, B=5.07). Conclusion: Our results suggested that quantitative analysis of the 99mTc-MDP SPECT-CT data can improve diagnostic accuracy in differentiating malignant metastatic bone lesions from degenerative bone lesions in high-risk BC patients.

Keywords

• breast cancer
• metastatic bone lesions
• 99mtc-mdp
• spect/ct
• quantitative analysis