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Positron emission tomography–computed tomography (better known as PET-CT or PET/CT) is a nuclear medicine technique which combines, in a single gantry, a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner and an x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner, to acquire sequential images from both devices in the same session, which are combined into a single superposed (co-registered) image.
As of August 2008, Cancer Care Ontario reports that the current average incremental cost to perform a PET scan in the province is CA$1,000–1,200 per scan. This includes the cost of the radiopharmaceutical and a stipend for the physician reading the scan. [92] In the United States, a PET scan is estimated to be US$1500-$5000.
Gallium-68 DOTA scans are increasingly replacing octreotide scans (a type of indium-111 scan using octreotide as a somatostatin receptor ligand). The gallium-68 is bound to an octreotide derivative chemical such as DOTATOC and the positrons it emits are imaged by PET-CT scan. Such scans are useful in locating neuroendocrine tumors and ...
In addition, there are nuclear medicine studies that allow imaging of the whole body based on certain cellular receptors or functions. Examples are whole body PET scans or PET/CT scans, gallium scans, indium white blood cell scans, MIBG and octreotide scans. Iodine-123 whole body scan for thyroid cancer evaluation.
Most patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer will receive a CT scan of the chest and abdomen to search for abnormality within the lungs and lymph nodes, as well as abnormal areas in more distal organs such as adrenal glands and liver that might arise from the metastasis of lung cancer. [15]
Thus, an abnormal PET scan will reliably pick up cancer, but several other types of nodules (inflammatory or infectious, for example) will also show up on a PET scan. If the nodule has a diameter of less than one centimeter, PET scans are often avoided because of an increased risk of falsely normal results.
Despite the medical advances of detection, diagnosis and treatment methods throughout the past 50 years, lung cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer in both men and women. [5] Currently, lung cancer is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in the United States and a major cause of death, accounting for 14% of all cancers.
PET images can be viewed in comparison to computed tomography scans to determine an anatomic correlate. Modern scanners may integrate PET, allowing PET-CT, or PET-MRI to optimize the image reconstruction involved with positron imaging. This is performed on the same equipment without physically moving the patient off of the gantry.