Metastatic bone disease developing in patients with potentially curable breast cancer

This study was done to determine the practicality of routinely using bone scans as part of the pretherapy work‐up for all patients with potentially curable breast cancer. Prior to this study we utilized bone scans in those patients who had bone pain and whose skeletal surveys were negative. Skeletal surveys were done only on patients with bone pain or who were considered to be borderline operable. In the 10 years following primary treatment, only 19% (61 of 321 patients) demonstrated osseous metastasis. Many of these metastases were not evident for over 5 years. There was a reasonably good 5‐year survival among this group of patients. As a result of this study, we have not changed our policy regarding pretherapy skeletal surveys or bone scans.