Nuclear medicine uses safe, painless and cost-effective techniques to image the body and treat disease. Nuclear medicine imaging is unique because it provides doctors with information about both structure and function. It is a way to gather medical information that would otherwise unavailable, require surgery or necessitate more expensive diagnostic tests.

PET/CT

Positron Emission Tomography - Computed Tomography

A PET-CT scan is a way to create pictures of organs and tissues inside the body. A small amount of radioactive sugar substance is injected into the patient’s body. This sugar substance is taken up by cells that use the most energy. Because cancer tends to use energy actively, it absorbs more of the radioactive substance. A scanner then detects this substance to produce images of the inside of the body. Because the disease is biological process and PET is biological imaging examination, PET can detect and stage most cancers, often before they are evident through other tests. Cancer cells show up brighter in the picture because they use more glucose than normal tissues.

A positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET-CT) scan is an imaging test used to learn more about the cancer stage and where it has spread. It is also used to:

• Find the right place to do a biopsy

• Find t how well treatment is working or has worked

• Plan radiation therapy

What to Expect

The PET/CT scanner is a large machine that looks a little like giant doughnut standing upright.

You’ll need about two and half hours for the procedure, which may be done on an outpatient basis (no overnight hospital stay). When you arrive for you scan, you may be asked to change into a hospital gown.

You will then be given a radioactive drug (tracer). You’ll need to wait 60minutes for the tracer to be absorbed by your body. When you are ready, you’ll lie on a narrow, padded table that slides into the scanner. During the scan, you’ll need to lie very still so the images aren’t’ blurred. It takes about 30 minutes to complete the test.