PET scan - new method in staging cancer

One of the biggest challenging in planning for cancer treatment is to stage the disease. Staging means to find out how extensive the cancer has spread. It is important because the kind of treatment given depends on the stage of the cancer.

For example, if we found a cancer in the stomach, we would need to stage the disease to find out if it has spread to other organs like liver. If there is no spread, the treatment would be surgical removal of the stomach. If it has spread, then, it would be futile to go for operation of the stomach as the disease has spread to other organs and the treatment would be chemotherapy instead.

Until recently, the way to stage the disease can only depends on CT scan, MRI and bone scans, which are quite accurate, but yet, it may not picked up small cancer spreads which has occur to other organs. This may result in some futile operations as the cancer already has spread but the doctor does not know.

Now, there is a new scan which is available in the recent years. Its called PET scan (Positron Emission Tomography). Its unique because it uses radioisotopes which lights up in the organ which has tumour. It is more accurate than CT scan and MRI for staging of the disease. It would also lights up the lymph node which has been affected by the cancer and this would enable the surgeon to plan the surgery better.

Only downside at the moment is the cost of the scan is very expensive, more expensive than MRI and CT scan. But it certainly improve the management of the cancer treatment.