How does PET/CT help in early detection and treatment of cancer?

Posted by Master, Doctor Dinh Van Thuyet - Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Nuclear Medicine - Vinmec Times City International General Hospital

PET/CT is one of the most modern nuclear medicine techniques available today, can diagnose diseases at the cellular and molecular levels, so this method has very high accuracy. PET/CT is most commonly used in cancer for early diagnosis and monitoring and assessment of treatment response. In addition, PET/CT is also used in the diagnosis of some cardiovascular and neurological diseases...

PET/CT is a very small dose of radioactive material used to detect lesions with abnormally high glucose metabolism. Therefore, PET/CT can provide information about organ dysfunction very early compared to other imaging modalities.

PET/CT is often prescribed by doctors in the following cases:
Early detection of cancerous lesions: Unlike benign tumors, cancerous tumors often increase sugar metabolism. As a result, PET/CT can help detect lesions and pathologies at a very early stage, even when they are not detected on CT, MRI, etc. PET/CT can detect about 80% of the disease. types of cancer due to increased activity with glucose that is common in cancer cells. Evaluation of the stage of cancer: PET/CT has the ability to assess quite accurately what stage the cancer is at? soon or late. As a result, clinicians can make appropriate treatment regimens according to international guidelines based on the actual stage of the disease. Re-evaluate the stage of the disease: some advanced cancers cannot be operated immediately, the clinician will treat the patient with chemotherapy and/or radiation first. After this course of treatment, the patient will be assigned a PET/CT scan to re-evaluate the stage of the disease. Quite a few patients in this group have a good response to treatment so they would be candidates for radical surgical treatment. PET/CT plays a huge role in deciding whether a patient is eligible for radical surgery. Monitoring response to treatment: Thanks to PET/CT, doctors can assess the effectiveness of the regimen that patients are being treated early, so that they can make a decision to continue maintaining it or change it soon. regimens to optimize treatment effectiveness. According to studies, PET/CT has contributed to changing the treatment strategy of more than one third of cancer diseases in the world. Over 90% of cancer patients get the right treatment decisions after PET/CT. Evaluation of recurrence, metastasis: PET/CT is an excellent and almost the only tool in terms of imaging to assess whether a patient has metastasis or local recurrence. This is an important requirement that is mandatory in the management and monitoring of cancer patients.

Radiopharmaceuticals used for PET/CT scans have a very short decay time, along with very low radioactivity, so PET/CT scans are safe and can even be used in children. Up to 90% of the radioactive drug will be eliminated from the body after the patient leaves the imaging room, so there is no need to worry about radiation exposure. Patients just need to pay attention to drink plenty of water after PET/CT scan and limit contact with pregnant women and young children within a day.

Vinmec Times City Hospital uses the SPECT/CT Discovery NM/CT 670 Pro system with the most modern 16-sequence CT of the world's leading medical equipment company GE Heathcare (USA), for high quality images, helping to diagnose Early diagnosis of disease requires investigation. The high quality service of Vinmec Times City Hospital will satisfy customers. Vinmec Times City's medical staff are experienced, well-trained at home and abroad, so they can advise and provide maximum support to customers during the shooting process, even for foreign customers. For advice on kidney scintigraphy, please contact the nuclear medicine unit hotline, Vinmec Times City International General Hospital: 0979 866 368 or register online HERE