1.07.2008

PET scanner emerges as premier cancer tracker

St. Louis Post-Dispatch......The device, called a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, is similar to MRI scanners but uses radioactivity instead of X-rays to create images of blood flowing through organs, brain activity and other processes.

New research from the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University show that PET scans are more accurate than any other method at predicting the aggressiveness of a cervical cancer tumor. The device also effectively shows whether treatments had destroyed the cancer.

Previously, doctors had no way to determine whether radiation or other therapies were working until a patient experienced symptoms or another tumor was found.

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