 |
|
PET/CT Imaging Proves Golden for Detecting Cancer in Children
December 13, 2007RESTON, Va.-PET/CT imaging exhibits significantly higher sensitivity, specificity and accuracy than conventional imaging when it comes to detecting malignant tumors in children, according to research published in the December issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. And that's not all: PET/CT imaging provides doctors with additional information about cancer in children, possibly sparing young patients from being overtreated.
"PET/CT is useful in finding small tumors in small children and is a promising imaging tool in evaluating pediatric malignancies," said Richard L. Wahl, the Henry N. Wagner, Jr., M.D., Professor in Nuclear Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Md. "In our study, we found that PET/CT can detect small lymph node lesions diagnosed as negative with conventional (or anatomical) imaging and deny the presence of active disease in soft-tissue masses post-treatment-especially in children with a wide range of malignant cancers," explained the Hopkins professor of radiology and oncology. "Using PET/CT could help spare children from overtreatment while fighting their disease," he added.
There are few findings about the use of PET/CT imaging in comparison with conventional imaging with pediatric patients, said Wahl, explaining that investigators retrospectively reviewed cases to evaluate the efficacy of PET/CT when compared with other imaging methods. Researchers reviewed 151 FDG PET/CT exams that were performed on 55 children with non-central nervous system malignancies (30 patients had lymphoma-cancer that affects the body's lymph nodes and other organs that are part of the body's immune and blood-forming systems).
PET (positron emission tomography) with CT (computed tomography) imaging-with the radiotracer fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-enables the collection of both biological and anatomical information during a single exam, with PET picking up metabolic signals of body cells and tissues and CT offering a detailed map of internal anatomy. "PET/CT showed its broad applicability and utility by providing additional information-in more than one third of the children's exams-that could be used by doctors to more appropriately manage or treat the disease in children," added the director of nuclear medicine/PET and vice chair of new technology and business development in the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science. When there were discrepancies between PET/CT and conventional anatomical imaging in analyzing cancer lesions, PET/CT was diagnostically accurate 90 percent of the time, added Wahl, who pioneered the use of PET with FDG and fusion imaging in a wide range of common adult cancers.
Doctors monitor the radiation dose given to children in imaging exams, generally using lower doses than that of adult patients, to get adequate exam results, said Wahl. "Especially as a follow-up examination, PET/CT appears to be the best imaging modality currently, as it provides both PET and CT information simultaneously in pediatric patients, in whom fewer examinations are preferable," he added. Wahl indicated that additional studies with specific childhood cancers are warranted.
PET is a powerful molecular imaging procedure that noninvasively demonstrates the function of organs and other tissues. When PET is used to image cancer, a radiopharmaceutical (such as FDG, which includes both a sugar and a radionuclide) is injected into a patient. Cancer cells metabolize sugar at higher rates than normal cells, and the radiopharmaceutical is drawn in higher amounts to cancerous areas. PET scans show where FDG is by tracking the gamma rays given off by the radionuclide tagging the drug and producing three-dimensional images of their distribution within the body. PET/CT offers precise fusion of metabolic PET images with high-quality anatomical CT images.
Besides Wahl, co-authors of "18F-FDG PET/CT in Evaluating Non-CNS Pediatric Malignancies" include Mitsuaki Tatsumi, nuclear medicine division, radiology department, and John H. Miller, pediatric radiology, radiology department, all from the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Md.
Society of Nuclear Medicine
PET (positron emission tomography) with CT (computed tomography) imaging-with the radiotracer fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-enables the collection of both biological and anatomical information during a single exam, with PET picking up metabolic signals of body cells and tissues and CT offering a detailed map of internal anatomy. "PET/CT showed its broad applicability and utility by providing additional information-in more than one third of the children's exams-that could be used by doctors to more appropriately manage or treat the disease in children," added the director of nuclear medicine/PET and vice chair of new technology and business development in the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science. When there were discrepancies between PET/CT and conventional anatomical imaging in analyzing cancer lesions, PET/CT was diagnostically accurate 90 percent of the time, added Wahl, who pioneered the use of PET with FDG and fusion imaging in a wide range of common adult cancers.
Doctors monitor the radiation dose given to children in imaging exams, generally using lower doses than that of adult patients, to get adequate exam results, said Wahl. "Especially as a follow-up examination, PET/CT appears to be the best imaging modality currently, as it provides both PET and CT information simultaneously in pediatric patients, in whom fewer examinations are preferable," he added. Wahl indicated that additional studies with specific childhood cancers are warranted.
PET is a powerful molecular imaging procedure that noninvasively demonstrates the function of organs and other tissues. When PET is used to image cancer, a radiopharmaceutical (such as FDG, which includes both a sugar and a radionuclide) is injected into a patient. Cancer cells metabolize sugar at higher rates than normal cells, and the radiopharmaceutical is drawn in higher amounts to cancerous areas. PET scans show where FDG is by tracking the gamma rays given off by the radionuclide tagging the drug and producing three-dimensional images of their distribution within the body. PET/CT offers precise fusion of metabolic PET images with high-quality anatomical CT images.
Besides Wahl, co-authors of "18F-FDG PET/CT in Evaluating Non-CNS Pediatric Malignancies" include Mitsuaki Tatsumi, nuclear medicine division, radiology department, and John H. Miller, pediatric radiology, radiology department, all from the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Md.
Society of Nuclear Medicine
Science News and Science Current Events Tag Cloud
This tag cloud is a visual representation of term frequencies of random science news topics with common terms grouped together and emphasized by their display size.
Tumor cell Neck Cancer Beta-catenin Cancer Gene Nanotubes Sleep problem Tanning Apoptosis Membrane Antioxidant Carbon Footprint Ebola Flooding Vaccine Nuclear Power Sleep Duration Gene Mutation Botox Ferroelectric Binge Drinking Metabolism Fat Academic Performance Restless Legs Syndrome Weight Gain
See More: Science News Tags
PET/CT planning beneficial for head and neck cancer patients
Using a combination of positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography for radiation therapy treatment planning in head and neck carcinoma patients provides for excellent, local and regional disease control when compared to CT alone.
18F-DG PET/CT can highly increase the detection of colorectal cancer
Combined positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) is currently widely used in the clinical diagnosis of cancer to provide functional and morphological imaging.
Combination scanner may increase accuracy in detecting spread, recurrence of head, neck cancer
A highly powerful scanner combining two state-of-the-art technologies - computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) - may detect the spread of head and neck cancer more accurately than other widely used imaging examinations.
More PET/CT Imaging Current Events and PET/CT Imaging News Articles
 |
Cardiac PET and PET/CT Imaging by Marcelo F. Di Carli (Editor), Martin J. Lipton (Editor) This textbook presents the reader with the most up-to-date, practical information on the practice of cardiac PET and hybrid PET/CT. Each chapter takes a step-by-step approach to this emerging technology, from basic principles of instrumentation, imaging, and protocols, to advanced discussions of current and future clinical applications. Perspective on other emerging imaging modalities (e.g., MRI) and the relative role of each adds to the well-rounded approach. A section on the technical aspects of cardiac PET and PET/CT imaging directed to and written by technologists is included as well. Molecular imaging approaches that are likely to play a clinical role in the future are also thoroughly covered. A library of original cases selected by the editors and contributors completes the text... |
 |
PET/CT in Clinical Practice by Springer PET/CT in Clinical Practice provides guidelines for appropriate use of PET/CT in lung, lymphoma, esophageal, colorectal, head/neck and melanoma, with reference also made to tumors of the male and female reproductive system. Concise, relevant and illustrated with many interesting PET/CT images, each chapter contains a summary of the appropriate staging system. The range of normal PET/CT appearances is outlined in chapter 9. The book focuses on FDG-PET/CT throughout, but chapter 10 makes reference to the future application of other positron emitters and gives a beginners guide to the physics of PET/CT. Everyone from medical student to consultant oncologist will be touched by this modality and all will need to understand its strengths and weaknesses. The book is essential... |
 |
Atlas of PET/CT Imaging in Oncology by Johannes Czernin (Author), M. Dahlbom (Author), O. Ratib (Author), Christiaan Schiepers (Author), M.E. Phelps (Foreword) The Atlas of PET/CT Imaging serves an educational purpose and is designed to teach radiologists and nuclear medicine specialists about important aspects of molecular imaging and nuclear medicine specialists about the benefits of anatomic imaging. It consists of a brief didactic portion and an extensive selection of interesting and challenging case examples. A special feature of the atlas is an interactive CD-ROM that provides the original PET and CT images of each case in selected planes enabling the users to manually adjust the blending intensity of each modality in a fused image. In addition, users can display the clinical history, imaging techniques and diagnostic findings of each case as well as the corresponding specific teaching point. |
 |
Specialty Imaging: PET/CT: Oncologic Imaging with Correlative Diagnostic CT by Todd Blodgett (Author) This profusely illustrated, practical reference is the first PET/CT book to offer not only comprehensive PET findings, but also extensive coverage of diagnostic CT findings, performance of diagnostic CT as part of PET/CT, and added benefits of PET/CT. Geared to practicing nuclear medicine physicians and radiologists performing PET/CT, the book provides complete information on the Medicare-covered indications and on many emerging clinical applications. The primary focus is on oncology applications. For each disease entity, the book provides succinct, bulleted information on imaging recommendations, CT findings, nuclear medicine findings, differential diagnosis, pathologic features, and clinical issues. Numerous illustrations with detailed legends show CT findings and PET/CT findings for... |
 |
Cardiac CT, PET and MR by Wiley-Blackwell Society-sanctioned guidelines on care are valuable tools, but accessing key information from the often complicated statements has been a daunting task. Now, practitioners and their institutions have a clear path to successful application of guidelines from the American Heart Association. This book outlines the key AHA guidelines, Statements, and Performance Measures and includes comparisons with the associated European guidelines, and offers a strong online component, which alerts users who sign up to new updates to the guidelines and other relevant information, plus provides links through to the full guidelines and statements. This careful revision keeps pace with developments in the field, with new chapters on PET Metabolism, CT and MRI in the Emergency Department, Image-Guided... |
 |
Molecular Anatomic Imaging: PET-CT and SPECT-CT Integrated Modality Imaging by Gustav K von Schulthess (Editor) This fully updated Second Edition is perfect for clinicians, as it focuses sharply on clinical PET-CT and SPECT-CT examinations, omitting lengthy physics discussions. The book is now strictly disease oriented and integrates PET-CT and SPECT-CT applications completely. When both techniques are relevant for a disease, they are discussed together; when only one is relevant, it is discussed alone. More than 1,200 illustrations document the use of integrated imaging and provide very useful reference material for interpreting integrated imaging studies. A bound-in DVD contains over 80 cases to be viewed in three orthogonal planes and different CT windows organized as reference and self-assessment files. The cases provide excellent training and self-assessment material. Readers can use the DVD... |
|
MONTEFIORE OFFERS PHILIPS' GEMINI PET/CT IMAGING.: An article from: Imaging Update b This digital document is an article from Imaging Update, published by Worldwide Videotex on August 1, 2003. The length of the article is 928 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Citation Details Title: MONTEFIORE OFFERS PHILIPS' GEMINI PET/CT IMAGING. Publication: Imaging Update (Newsletter) Date: August 1, 2003 Publisher: Worldwide Videotex Volume: 14 Issue: 8 Page: NA Distributed by Thomson Gale | |
 |
Clinical PET and PET/CT by Springer A practical manual covering the full spectrum of PET imaging which is now in common clinical practice. It includes images of normal variants, artefacts, and pathologic conditions. Indications for and the relative clinical value of PET in the armamentarium of diagnostic medical imaging will be reviewed. The information in the book will be arranged in three main sections and will be organized in such a way as to be brief, concise, easy-to-understand and readily accessed. Section III (PET Clinical Applications) will be emphasized over the sections I (PET Physics & Instrumentation) and II, (PET Radiotracers) since it is expected that most readers will be interested in learning the clinical applications. Sections I & II will serve to provide some brief background information before a more... |
 |
Clinical Molecular Anatomic Imaging: PET, PET/CT, and SPECT/CT by Gustav K von Schulthess (Editor) Univ. Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. Revised edition of Positron Emission Tomography, c2000. Summarizes current knowledge on optimizing the clinical utility of the new imaging devices. Each chapter now includes an abstract and one relevant figure associated with it. Color and halftone illustrations. DNLM: Tomography, Emission-Computed--methods. |
|
Radiation Protection in Newer Medical Imaging Techniques: Pet/Ct (Safety Reports) by International Atomic Energy Agency (Author) The emergence of hybrid systems, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (PET/CT), has stimulated much interest. This Safety Report reviews radiation protection issues arising from the use of PET/CT and offers guidance on dose management and optimization. It provides data on patient dose and risk levels, as well as information for practitioners on optimizing techniques. |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |