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Michele Hubbard, nuclear medicine technologist, instructs a patient as her PET/CT procedure nears completion. The PET/CT scanner at the Imaging Center on the Apple Hill Health Campus helps physicians make more accurate evaluations and more informed decisions about a patient’s care.
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Can help detect cancer, assess disease spread and evaluate treatment response
A permanent PET/CT scanner at the Imaging Center on the Apple Hill Health Campus is enhancing the treatment of cancer patients.
The scanner merges Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with Computed Tomography (CT) to help physicians make more accurate evaluations and more informed decisions about a patient’s care.
The scanner can use the PET or CT mode or both together. A PET/CT scan performed on the new unit requires less than 30 minutes.
A PET/CT scan can help detect cancer, assess disease spread and evaluate treatment response.
“The PET/CT scanner is contributing significantly to our treatment of cancer patients,” said MaryEllen Stahl, nuclear medicine team leader.
“A PET scan is very sophisticated,” she added. “It is far more accurate than CT studies alone.”
Stahl explained that diagnostic imaging tests such as CT or X-ray show structural details of the anatomy, while PET shows metabolic or functional activity.
Metabolic “hot spots” and corresponding functional abnormalities can reveal disease states before structural damage is detected.
“Cancerous tumors are active glucose users,” said Stahl. “We can determine a lot by injecting the patient with a radioactive sugar, called FDG, having them wait for one hour for it to circulate and then performing a PET scan.”
The new PET scanner is so sophisticated and sensitive, a lower radiation dosage and a smaller amount of FDG are used.
A PET scan shows the uptake of FDG into living tissue and differentiates normal areas from diseased areas.
“We can determine how active a mass is by how much FDG it picks up,” said Stahl. “If it picks up very little or none at all, then it is most likely non-cancerous.
“Based on information the PET/CT scan supplies, we may start treatment sooner or focus the treatment in a more effective manner.”
Early detection can alter the course of action, in some instances. For example, a physician may be able to avoid sending a patient for a biopsy or another invasive procedure.
The entire PET/CT scanner project, which cost approximately $3 million, was completed this summer in the Imaging Center.
Prior to that, a mobile PET scanner was on site two days a week.
