RSSA Conference: Experience of King Abdullah Medical City in Bone Metastases Detection by Different Radiological Modalities and Tumor Marker Sensitivity

Objective: The study aims to evaluate the detectability of bone metastases (BM) by CT scan vs. bone scintigraphy (BS) and the sensitivity of tumour markers in different oncological settings for predicting the presence of skeletal metastases. Methods: Medical information was collected for 299 patients who fit the inclusion criteria from patient files and medical image reports using (AGFA PACS® and Trakcare® systems) between January 2013 and December 2021 at KAMC-HC in Makkah. Results: BS detected BM in breast cancer patients in 135 cases, while CT scan detected BM in 122 cases. In prostate cancer patients, the BS detected BM in all 38 cases, while the CT scan detected BM in 32 cases. Regarding Gastro-Intestinal (GI) malignancies, the BS detected BM in 27 cases, while the CT scan detected BM in 23 cases only. PSA was conducted on 40 patients and 28 (70%) of them was elevated. Breast cancer patients showed tumour marker elevation in 46 (38.9%) of 118 patients. GI malignancy revealed the highest rate of tumour markers elevation in 24 (80%) of 30 patients. Conclusion: Our study showed that BS has higher sensitivity than CT scans in detecting BM for breast, prostate and GI malignancies. Further collaboration is needed to determine the sensitivity of each modality, compare them with other monitoring methods like MRI or PET/CT, optimize the hospital resources utilization for each type of malignancy and reduce the patient’s exposure to unnecessary radiation.