{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02374893977947413, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007633587786259542, 'mean_word_length': 4.7560975609756095, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The role of skeletal scanning in clinical oncology.

SIR,-The review by Drs James H McKillop and I Ross McDougall (9 August, p 407) on the value of bone scanning in clinical oncology included the observation that scanning is less effective than skeletal radiology for detecting bone lesions in multiple myeloma. We have recently studied the skeletal radiology and isotope scan images of a series of patients with multiple myeloma and made the following observations. (1) Of 18 patients so far studied, there has been no instance where there has been a normal bone scan and an abnormal skeletal radiograph. (2) While lesions (particularly lytic lesions) are more frequently seen in the limbs and skull on x-ray examination than on isotope scan, radiology is inferior to bone scanning in detecting rib lesions. (3) The majority of isotope scan abnormalities are areas of increased activity due to repair consequent on fracture. However, in one case a "cold area" was detected on scanning and this corresponded to a large lytic area on the x-ray film. We concluded that small lytic lesions not at present detected by bone scanning are not seen merely because of resolution problems.