Technology Services
PET Scans
The PET scanner is a technology that allows physicians to examine the heart, brain, liver, tumors and muscle tissue in ways never before possible. It combines the fields of medicine, computer science, chemistry, physics and physiology to study the metabolic function of these body organs. By studying metabolic changes within the body, this technology can detect diseases weeks or months before symptoms appear. Primarily used as a diagnostic tool, PET allows physicians to measure a variety of body functions and chemistry in a safe way. If surgery is indicated, PET scanning can show physicians where to operate. Unlike X-ray, CT or MRI scans that show the shape, size or position of organs or tissues, PET shows their chemical activity and can be used along with these other diagnostic tools to give physicians more detailed information about their patients. Below is an example of a patient’s image after receiving a CT scan and a PET scan.
Description of PET photograph
This is an image of a patient’s central chest area on a computerized tomography scan (below left) and on a positron emission tomography scan (below right). The arrow on the CT scan points to what appears to be a cancerous tumor, which suggests the cancer has spread. But the growth is not visible on the PET scan.
Looking at the CT scan, it appeared that this patient may have had cancer in the chest area, but, because the patient also had a PET scan, which more accurately shows cancerous tumors, physicians realized the patient did not have cancer in that part of his body. As a result, this patient had the most appropriate surgical treatment. During the surgery, lymph nodes in the central chest were removed and no tumor was found, proving that the PET scan was correct.
(This is just one example of how a PET scan can help physicians diagnose and treat cancer. Talk with your physician to find out if a PET scan is appropriate for you.)
