A nuclear medicine scanning procedure using a radioactive tracer which has been suggested as an alternative or complementary procedure to traditional mammography and biopsy for the detection of breast cancers.
Mammography enhanced by a radioactive isotope study of healthy and malignant breast tissue. The radioactive tracer is injected into a peripheral vein and is taken up by metabolically active cells. Breast cancer cells are metabolically more active than normal tissues, take up more tracer, and on the image appear brighter than the surrounding healthy cells. Scintimammography can be used to identify breast cancers that are otherwise difficult to visualize and to guide breast biopsies.