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A new
study suggests that PET scans can predict better than other
types of imaging if breast cancer is likely to recur in a
woman who has been treated for the disease.
UCLA researchers
compared PET scans with conventional tests such as S-ray,
CT scans, undersound, MRI, and mammography in attempting to
predict recurrence in 61 women previously treated for breast
cancer.
The results
of PET and conventional imaging were in agreement for 75 percent
of the women. In the remaining 15 women, however, 9 women
had positive results on PET, meaning that cancer had returned,
but negative results on conventional imaging. PET results
were negative for 6 women, who had positive results from conventional
imaging.
The researchers
said that six months after testing, 6 months after testing,
PET turned out to be correct in 12 of the 15 cases in which
PET and conventional imaging produced conflicting results.
Conventional imaging was correct in only 3 of the 15 women.
PET turned
out to have correctly predicted the outcome for 80 percent
of these 15 women compared to only 20 percent accuracy for
the other methods, the researchers reported in the Journal
of Nuclear Medicine.
The results
of the study were published only days after the Center for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will
now pay for PET scans in women whose breast cancer may have
spread to other parts of the body, or to determine how they
are responding to treatment.
Source:
Breast Cancer
Week of March 17, 2002
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