Bone Scan Positive, mammogram and ultrasound negative-what now?

[mammabug]

A close friend has been having lower back pain for many months with pain in her legs as well but the intensity and side of the leg pain changes.

The orthopedist sent her for a bone scan which came back positive with pathological uptake in L2, a number of areas of her right anterior ribs, her sternum and her left breast.

She went for a mammogram and ultrasound which were both negative. She also went to a gynecologist and nothing gynelogical was found.

So the question is like this:

What are the possibilites of breast cancer with no lump felt by her and negative ultrasound and mammogram even thought he bone scan was positive? Can all those spots in many places be something other than metastisis?

What exams should she be doing now? She has an appointment with a breast surgeon on Monday.

Thanks.

[japdip]

Unless your friend has been previously diagnosed with breast cancer I can't see why this would be even considered at this point. If the areas of concern are pain and the results showed uptake in the spine area I would be thinking something related to bone rather than breast cancer. Bone Scan will pick up "everything" .... mine showed uptake in the jaw where I had an abscessed tooth several years before. With neg. Mammo and Ultrasound it's highly unlikely that there is a breast issue here. Keep in mind that everything I have said is based on the fact that there was no previous diagnosis of breast cancer !!!

[mammabug]

I am a nurse and the two radiologists I spoke to right away said it sounds like metastisis (and this is with no cancer history) . What concerned me was that there was uptake in quite a few spots. I am also a bit worried because a patient of my sister's had a negative mammogram and ultrasound and had an MRi that came back with breast cancer in both breasts and metastisis.

[japdip]

As I'm sure you are aware, this would be quite a rare thing to be diagnosed by bone scan with no previous symptoms or testing. Every type of imagery I have for things that have nothing to do with my previous cancer diagnosis always come back with "metastises" as the first opinion listed. None have been related in any way to cancer though. Please keep me posted as to the results of the surgical consult; I'm very interested in the outcome.   Thanks .....