Survey: PET Scan May Alter Treatment for Breast Cancer Patients

PET scan results may change the course of patient management for breast cancer patients, according to researchers at the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the University of California at Los Angeles.

In a survey of referring physicians published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, a PET scan changed the clinical management of 60 percent of patients with recurrent breast cancer. A PET scan also changed the cancer staging for 36 percent of patients scanned.

Before having the PET scan, 36 percent of the patients were reported to have stage IV cancer but after the scan, more than half of them were labeled stage IV as a result of discovery of previously undetected metastases.

"These results demonstrate the importance of PET in making treatment decisions for women with recurrent breast cancer," said Dr. Johannes Czernin, author of the study. "Better treatment decisions should mean longer and better quality of life for those suffering from this disease."

The PET scan measures the body's metabolic activity. Patients undergoing a PET scan are injected with radiopharmaceutical fluorodeoxyglucose about 45 minutes before the scan. The radiopharmaceutical tracer emits signals that are picked up by the scanner and a computer reassembles the signals into images that display the distribution of metabolic activity as an anatomic image.

Areas where cancer is present show up more brightly on the scan because cancer cells are more metabolically active than non-cancerous cells.

Other Sources: Journal of Nuclear Medicine