Diagnosis :(NOT Medicare Approved) May be useful in patients with suspicion of malignancy but with dense or surgically altered breasts where mammography is suboptimal.
Staging: (Medicare Approved Only where metastic disease is known or suspected) Under active study, including NCI-sponsored multi-institutional trial. Hypothesis is that positive PET may render axillary staging unnecessary in many patients, avoiding the morbidity and expense of that staging procedure. Negative PET does not exclude nodal metastases since PET cannot detect microscopic disease. Sentinel node biopsy best for microscopic disease but may be unnecessary if PET positive.
Restaging/Surveillance: : (Medicare Approved), including monitoring response to therapy.
 
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