Standard Chest X-Ray and Whole-Lung Tomography for the Search of Metastases from Bone and Soft Tissues Sarcomas. An Experience on 132 Consecutive Cases.

In recent years whole lung tomography (WLT) has been considered mandatory in the staging of some neoplastic diseases, particularly of soft tissues and bone tumors. Since WLT is an exacting roentgen examination, its usefulness was evaluated by analysing 132 consecutive patients submitted to orthogonal chest roentgenograms and WLT, from January 1979 to October 1981 at the National Cancer Institute of Milan. A comparison between WLT and traditional chest X-ray examination was performed in order to evaluate how much tomography is significantly useful in improving diagnosis of lung metastases. From this analysis, the authors conclude that WLT is generally unnecessary when chest roentgenograms are negative, whereas it is useful when single or multiple lung metastases are already evident by traditional X-ray examination. In these cases WLT allows a more accurate identification of the metastases from the point of view of their number and site, which is important not only for the treatment choice but also for the check of its effectiveness.