Hepatic flow scintigraphy in evaluation of hepatic metastases in patients with gastrointestinal malignancy.

Objective: To assess the value of hepatic flow scintigraphy for occult metastases.

Design: Prospective study, 2 years of follow-up.

Setting And Study Participants: One hundred twenty-nine patients undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal cancer.

Intervention: Preoperative hepatic flow scintigraphy (3mCi of technetium-99m).

Main Outcome Measure: Development of hepatic metastases.

Results: Hepatic flow scintigraphy had a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 34%. The positive and negative predictive values were 15% and 97%, respectively.

Conclusions: Hepatic flow scintigraphy could therefore be useful in identifying patients who are at low risk of developing metachronous liver metastases and thus avoid unnecessary adjuvant chemotherapy following resection of the primary tumor.