Earlier diagnosis PET is able to diagnose disease before structural changes become detectable with anatomical imaging techniques, potentially improving the prognosis. Evaluates Response to Therapy PET shows the effectiveness of therapy. PET manages patient therapy by monitoring response to a given regimen and providing early feedback on its efficacy. This can help avoid ineffective treatments or unnecessary hospitalization. Identifies distant metastases PET shows the extent of disease - called staging - of lung cancer, colorectal cancer, melanoma, head and neck cancer, breast cancer, lymphoma, and many other cancers. Because PET can survery the whole body, PET can identify distant, occult metastases that may affect the course of treatment and therefore change patient management. Eliminates invasive procedures PET helps avoid the expense and pain of removing benign nodules, as well as invasive biopsy procedures to determine malignancy. Reports in the scientific literature find that, in some tumors, PET correctly identifies detected lesions 95% of the time. Pre-surgical assessment PET allows for more accurate staging of patients for surgery. Thus eliminating those procedures that will not benefit the patient and ultimately avoiding useless surgical resections. Post-surgical assessment After surgery normal anatomy may be altered making reading CT or MRI scans difficult or impossible. PET can be used to identify any suspicious areas of possible recurrence despite gross anatomical changes.   Sitemap