A New Test for Diagnosing Breast Cancer

What is Scintimammography?
Scintimammography (SMM) is a Nuclear Medicine scan that employs a radioactive tracer, Technetium 99m MIBI (also known as Miraluma) to identify abnormal cells based on the difference in metabolic characteristics between cancer cells and non cancerous cells.

How does Scintimammography work?
A small amount of a radioactive tracer is injected into an arm or foot vein, like taking a blood sample. No injection is made in the breast. The tracer then travels throughout the body via the bloodstream. Normal breast tissue takes up very little tracer as against metabolically active cancers which allow them to be easily seen with the help of a special imaging device called a gamma camera. No special preparation is required for the test, and the entire procedure takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Is this radioactivity harmful?
The amount of radiation associated with SMM is in the same range as current diagnostic X-rays. Although no amount of radiation, however small, can be proven to be harmless, the fact that we are constantly bathed in a similar range of radiation that comes from our natural environment, indicates that if there is an untoward event, it is so small that it can't be measured.

next >