How reliable are bone scans to find cancer?

Moderate: Bone scans are good tests for cancer, but a normal or negative bone scah does not necessarily mean there is no cancer. Some types of bone cancer do not show up on bone scans. If there is a concern for bone cancer, an oncologist should be consulted.

Moderate: They will find cancer if it metastasizes to bone but not all cases. In general, a few cells of cancer will not show up on bone scan, but a larger area will. It varies with the tyoe of cancer.