 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Nov 2002 Posts: 3,552 | Head & neck PET scan cancer detection accuracy is more like 87%, compared to 67% for conventional imaging.
+"PET equipment isn't able to reliably detect tumors smaller than 0.7 centimeters. For the smallest lesions, detectable at 2-3 millimeters through CT technology, diagnosis usually relies on observation."
Colorectal has a 94% accuracy and that is the highest accuracy acheivable to date with PET.
The following is an extract from an article about PET/CT:
++"The PET-CT procedure superimposes the PET image, which shows metabolically active sites in the body, on the CT image, which shows the anatomic map of the body to localise abnormal function in the body. This combined image allows doctors to pinpoint the disease areas with a combined 98% accuracy. These scans are highly sensitive and can detect small lesions in the body. CT scans alone have 60% accuracy while PET scans are 90% accurate." <<I was not able to validate the numbers cited in this article.>>
+Stanford Report, February 28, 2001
++Dr Felix Sundram, SGH Head of Department of Nuclear Medicine
Gary Allsebrook
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Dx 11/22/02, SCC, 6 x 3 cm Polypoid tumor, rt tonsil, Stage III/IVA, T3N0M0 G1/2
Tx 1/28/03 - 3/19/03, Cisplatin ct x2, IMRT, bilateral, with boost, x35(69.96Gy)
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"You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (James 4:14 NIV)
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