CT PET Scanning and the Valley PET Institute
As physicians began looking for ways to better diagnose the extent of disease and to better measure the results of cancer treatment, some investigators found that cancers have more active metabolism and take up and use sugar more than their normal tissue counterparts. CT-PET scanning depends on how actively a tumor takes up radioactive sugar (FDG) and incorporates it into the cancer cells. This shows up on the resulting scan as being 'hot' in comparison to the surrounding organs, and thus is visible.
How is the CT PET used?
What is staging?
If the tumor is treated with cancer therapy, a scan can help the clinician determine whether the treatment has worked, and if the tumor has spread elsewhere. The first use is in determining how wide spread a particular cancer is. Can it be surgically removed or treated with a local treatment such as radiation. If it can not, than some form of chemotherapy is most likely to be used, although there are many uses of both surgery and radiation, even though the tumor is wide spread. This scan done before therapy is begun is called a staging scan.
What is restaging?
After therapy is completed in some cases, and while treatment is still ongoing in others, a scan may be performed to help determine whether the treatment is working. In some cases it is used quite early in treatment to find out if the tumor is responding to the treatment. This later area is more controversial, But using scanning following treatment is commonly done.
