Tumour Uptake of 57-Cobalt-Bleomycin in Patients with Breast Cancer

17 patients with breast carcinoma were studied with 57-cobalt-bleomycin scintigraphy. Scans showed increased tumour uptake in all patients. Results expressed as percentage of the injected dose (ID) normalised by the size of the tumour region (% ID/pixel) showed higher tumour uptake in patients with T3-T4 breast carcinomas (n = 5) than in patients with T1-T2 breast cancer (n = 12) (8.4 +/- 0.55 x 10(-3) vs. 5.25 +/- 1.71 x 10(-3)% ID/pixel, respectively, P < 0.05). An inverse correlation between tumour uptake of 57-cobalt-bleomycin and progesterone receptor concentration was also found in all tumours tested (r = -0.60, P < 0.05, n = 10) and was confirmed in the group of patients with T2 breast carcinomas (r = -0.89, P < 0.05, n = 6). We conclude that a quantitative analysis of 57-cobalt-bleomycin uptake can give additional information suitable for the presurgical characterisation of a tumour