Indications for liver and brain scans. Screening tests for patients with oat cell carcinoma of the lung.

From 1973 to 1975, scans of the liver and brain as routine screening procedures were performed on patients with oat cell carcinoma of the lung at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Normal test results were observed in 20 of 21 and 32 patients who showed no clinical evidence of involvement of the liver and brain. Only one scan in 21 and one in 35 yielded new information concerning possible organ involvement. We concluded that scans of the liver and brain are not useful methods of screening the patient with no clinical evidence of oat cell carcinoma.