Cancer Care (NAPSA)—A new way of looking for cancer may help many womenlive longer, betterlives. According to a recent study published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, a PET scan changed the way many women with recurrent breast cancer were treated. Decisions about surgery, chemotherapy, and other treatments, changed for 60 percent of the women in the study. Researchers found PET scans can help doctors diagnose and treat women with breast cancer more accurately. PET stands for Positron Emission Tomography. A PET scan measures the body’s metabolic activity. Cancer cells show up bright on the scan because they’re more metabolically active. PET seans can often detect cancer before it is visible on a CT or MRI. There are about 200,000 new U.S. cases of breast cancer annually and over 40,000 deaths, a leading cancer society says. “Declining death rates,” the society says, “are probably the result of earlier detection and improved treatment.” You can learn more from the Society of Nuclear Medicine at www.snm.org.
