MRI of the breast in breast cancer aftercare
An MRI of the breast is not regularly performed in the follow-up care, because the diagnostic accuracy is not better than the regular anamnesis with physical examination combined with mammography. In addition, early detection of recurrent tumors does not bring patients any advantage in terms of survival, so that costly and time-consuming procedures such as MRI play only a minor role in aftercare.
Scintigraphy in breast cancer aftercare
Scintigraphy of the skeleton is an examination method to detect metastases in the bones using radioactive substances. Similar to MRI, no routine scintigraphy of the bones is performed during follow-up. A scintigraphy is only useful for patients who complain of newly occurring pain, for example in the back, during the follow-up discussion, or in whom unexplained bone fractures occur during follow-up, as bone metastases are suspected.
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