News & Events
Imaging Breast Cancer: Role of PET and PET/CT in diagnosis and treatment
Although mammogram is the most commonly performed method of screening the breast, other imaging modalities such as ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and positron emission tomography (PET) may be used to provide additional information to better locate and define abnormal findings. Among these, PET, and more recently PET/CT, fills certain imaging needs that the other modes cannot meet.
Read more about PET imaging for breast Cancer. |
Pet Imaging Guides Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer Patients
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PET and fused PET/CT images of a patient with pancreatic cancer.
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Because of its ability to indicate a tumor's metabolic activity, PET imaging can show change in a pancreatic tumor even before it begins to shrink, says Columbia University Pancreas Center oncologist Robert Fine, MD. "PET can show a tumor's metabolic activity has been slowed by treatment, or that the tumor is dying or dead."
Postoperatively, surgeons use PET to find out if a pancreatic cancer has recurred, or if it has metastasized. "Any kind of previous surgery leaves behind scar and fibrosis that are difficult to distinguish from cancer with a CT scan," says Beth Schrope, MD, PhD, a general surgeon at Columbia who performs pancreatic surgery at the Pancreas Center. "But unlike cancer, a scar is not metabolically active, so on a PET scan we can tell if it's cancer or not."
To learn more about PET imaging for pancreatic cancer, please click here. |
A Second Chance for the Ailing Heart
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A PET scan of the heart muscle.
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Patients with severe coronary artery disease may become candidates for heart transplant when prolonged nutrient and oxygen deprivation due to blocked arteries has killed portions of their heart muscle. But using PET imaging to detect cardiac viability can offer these hearts a second chance.
To learn more about PET imaging for cardiac viability, please click here. |
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PET Produces Diabetes Research Breakthrough
Using PET imaging, Columbia University diabetes researchers have captured pictures of insulin-producing cells inside a living animal. The new PET technique, which measures total beta cell mass, was developed by Department of Medicine researchers Paul Harris, Ph.D., principal investigator, and Antonella Maffei, Ph.D., associate research scientist, and other CUMC researchers. If the long-awaited technique also works in humans, PET imaging will give researchers and clinicians a way to answer one of the simplest but most pressing questions about diabetes: What happens to the number, or mass, of insulin-producing “beta” cells as the disease progresses?
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Visualizing Mental Illness: Using PET to Improve Diagnosis and Treatment
PET scans can reveal the state of the brain at the level of the neurotransmitters by viewing how chemicals in the brain rise or fall in association with the progression of psychiatric illnesses.
To learn more about PET for Mental Illness, please click here.
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Lymphoma: Using PET for Diagnosis and Treatment Response
While a tumor biopsy should provide the definitive diagnosis of lymphoma, PET scans can help to confirm that diagnosis and to stage the disease. By revealing the extent and location of the cancer, PET can help guide treatment decisions, including where to obtain the biopsy and what form of treatment the patient needs," says Ronald L.Van Heertum, MD, Director, Columbia Kreitchman PET Center, and Professor of Radiology, Columbia University Medical Center.
To learn more about PET for Lymphoma, please click here.
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PET/CT image of a lymphoma patient. The arrows point to specific tumor sites. |
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Visualizing Better Care: PET for Colorectal Cancer
According to the Centers for Disease Control, colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Fortunately, improvements in screening techniques, treatment approaches, and imaging technologies, have helped to decrease the mortality rate from colon and rectal cancer over the past 15 years. "PET helps us to determine whether or not someone is a surgical candidate, by revealing whether the disease has spread elsewhere," says Tracey D. Arnell, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
To learn more about PET for colorectal cancer, please click here.
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PET/CT image of a colorectal cancer patient with multiple metastases. |
PET Scans for Alzheimer's Disease: A View of Hope
On September 15, 2004 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its intention to expand coverage of PET scans to a limited group of Medicare beneficiaries with suspected Alzheimer's disease. Some private insurers also cover PET for Alzheimer’s on a case-by-case basis.
"PET for Alzheimer’s has three major purposes," says Ronald L. Van Heertum, MD, Professor of Radiology, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and Director, Columbia Kreitchman PET Center. "First, it is a noninvasive tool to help establish an early diagnosis. Second, it is useful in determining differential diagnoses—identifying Alzheimer’s versus other dementia disorders. Finally, in the future we may use it to evaluate response to therapy—seeing whether a patient is benefiting from a particular medication or treatment."
To learn more about PET for Alzheimer's disease, please click here.
VA Provider Relationship Renewed
Columbia Kreitchman PET Center has renewed its provider agreement with the Department of Veteran Affairs. With this agreement, Columbia PET remains part of a select group of institutions that provide PET and PET/CT scans to patients referred from the Veterans Integrated Service Network, VISN 3. In New York, the VISN3 network includes the Bronx, Brooklyn/St. Alban’s, Manhattan, Northport, and Castle Point/Montrose VA Hospitals. The New Jersey campuses are located in East Orange and Lyons.
To learn more about VISN3, please visit: http://www1.va.gov/visns/visn03/default.asp.
NYSTAR
In recognition of its clinical and research excellence, the Columbia Kreitchman PET Center was recently named as part of an $11 million grant from NYSTAR (New York State Office of Science, Technology & Academic Research). This grant will aid the Integrated Imaging Center at Columbia University, which includes the PET Center, in developing new technologies to improve the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. In addition to the potential for groundbreaking advances in health care, the Integrated Imaging Center is expected to create major economic opportunities for New York’s biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical instrumentation industries.
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PET scan of lower serotonin function in a patient with major depression (right),
compared to a healthy volunteer (left).
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Investigators will use PET to help evaluate new treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases. They will look at the early biochemical changes in Alzheimer's disease and in genetically engineered mice with abnormalities that are comparable to Alzheimer’s disease. They will also determine the optimal combination of pre- and post-synaptic measures of dopamine turnover to develop new treatment approaches for Parkinson’s disease. Major psychiatric disorders such as mood and psychotic diseases will be characterized biochemically to assist in diagnosis. New treatments will be evaluated in genetically engineered mouse models and in healthy volunteers and patients.
For more information about the Integrated Imaging Center, go to:
http://www.nystar.hs.columbia.edu/
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