Limited utility of routine bone scintigraphy in the staging of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: A cross-sectional study.

Introduction And Objectives: The most widely used staging system for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the Barcelona Liver Clinic Cancer (BCLC) system, which considers tumor burden, performance status, and liver function. Tumor burden is assessed with cross sectional imaging of the abdomen and chest, controversy surrounds the routine use of bone scintigraphy (BS) for detecting extrahepatic metastases. This study evaluated the role of BS in staging HCC in Mexican patients.