Somatostatin-receptor scintigraphy in primary breast cancer

Somatostatin-receptor (SS-R) scintigraphy successfully shows primary cancers and distant metastases in most patients with carcinoids, islet cells tumours, and paragangliomas. Previous in-vitro studies indicated that somatostatin receptors are present in human breast cancers. We report positive scintigraphy with [111In-DTPA-D-Phe1]-octreotide in 39 of 52 primary breast cancers (75%). Parallel in-vitro autoradiography with [125I-Tyr3]-octreotide of 30 of these showed a corresponding somatostatin-receptor status in 28. Significantly more invasive ductal cancers could be shown than invasive lobular carcinomas (85% vs 56%; p<0·05). Also the number of T2 cancers which were shown was higher than T1 (86% vs 61%; p