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The number of metastatic axillary nodes represents one of the most important prognostic factors in preoperative breast cancer patients. 99mTc-Tetrofosmin high resolution Pinhole (P)-SPECT was employed in 112 patients, 100 with breast cancer and 12 with benign mammary lesions, to ascertain axillary lymph node involvement. Axillary P-SPECT images were acquired utilizing specific software connected to a circular high resolution, single-head gamma camera equipped with a pinhole collimator with aperture size of 4.45 mm, rotating 180 degrees around the involved axilla. At the same time, patients also underwent conventional SPECT and planar acquisitions. Per-patient sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 93.6% for P-SPECT, 96.2% and 93.6% for SPECT and 56.6% and 100% for planar imaging, respectively. Moreover, P-SPECT detected more than 51% of lesions ascertained by histology, whereas SPECT and planar detected 32.6% and 20.3%, respectively. Only P-SPECT succeeded in identifying the exact number of metastatic axillary lesions in patients with multiple nodes; this procedure was able to correctly differentiate 88.67% of patients with 3 or less nodes from those with more than 3, thus giving important prognostic information. These data suggest 99mTc-Tetrofosmin P-SPECT is a reliable imaging method both for staging and prognostic purposes in breast cancer, and its routine use is recommended.
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