PET/CT Scans May Be Less Accurate in Elderly Mesothelioma Patients
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PET/CT Scans May Be Less Accurate in Elderly Mesothelioma Patients

ByAlex Strauss

Researchers at Case Western Reserve are warning cancer doctors not to rely too heavily on PET/CT scans when diagnosing malignant mesothelioma – especially in older patients. PET/CT is an important tool for staging mesothelioma and can help with diagnosis. But a new case report highlights the problem of false-negative PET/CT scans.  In this case involving a 77-year-old man, PET/CT showed no mesothelioma. Even the man’s lung fluid tests were negative for mesothelioma. The case is a potent reminder that biopsy is still the gold standard for diagnosing asbestos cancer.  PET/CT Scans and Other Tools for Diagnosing Mesothelioma Pleural mesothelioma is a tricky cancer to diagnose. Most patients do not even have symptoms until the disease is in a later stage….

Tracking Mesothelioma Recurrence: FDG-PET/CT Versus CT
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Tracking Mesothelioma Recurrence: FDG-PET/CT Versus CT

ByAlex Strauss

FDG-PET/CT may be a more effective way to track malignant pleural mesothelioma recurrence than contrast-enhanced CT scanning.  That is the conclusion of cancer researchers with Japan’s Hyogo College of Medicine. The researchers focused on fifty patients who underwent radical surgery for pleural mesothelioma. Afterwards, doctors used both FDG-PET/CT and contrast-enhanced CT scans to track mesothelioma progression. Two experienced examiners assessed the cases. They concluded that FDG-PET/CT was more accurate than CT for diagnosing mesothelioma recurrence. Mesothelioma Recurrence After Surgery Pleural mesothelioma is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. It arises in the layers of the pleural membrane that surrounds the lungs. Mesothelioma tumors tend to grow and spread quickly. Treatments like chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy can sometimes slow…

Talc Pleurodesis Patients Need Alternate PET/CT Scan for Mesothelioma
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Talc Pleurodesis Patients Need Alternate PET/CT Scan for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Certain patients may get more benefit out of an alternate type of PET/CT scan for mesothelioma. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a common tool for diagnosing mesothelioma. It is also used to monitor the effectiveness of mesothelioma treatments. Doctors often combine PET with computed tomography (CT) for an even clearer picture of mesothelioma progression. Typically, a PET/CT scan for mesothelioma involves injection of a tracer called FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose). But it turns out that PET/CT scans with this tracer do not work well for all mesothelioma patients. A new Japanese study suggests that mesothelioma patients who have had a procedure called talc pleurodesis should consider a different kind of PET/CT scan instead. How Does Talc Pleurodesis Impact PET/CT Scan for Mesothelioma?…

Best Tools for Measuring Mesothelioma Treatment Response
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Best Tools for Measuring Mesothelioma Treatment Response

ByAlex Strauss

When it comes to evaluating treatment response in mesothelioma, functional imaging techniques may do a better job than standard imaging. That is the word from a team of UK researchers who compared different types of imaging techniques in the evaluation of pleural mesothelioma patients for an article in the journal Lung Cancer. Imaging Techniques for Mesothelioma Tumors Functional imaging, which includes techniques like positron emission tomography (PET), dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, and diffusion-weighted MRI, are designed to tell doctors more than just the size or shape of the mesothelioma tumor. By using certain kinds of injectable tracers, these imaging studies reveal important information about cellular processes like metabolism, which is typically higher in mesothelioma cells than it is in normal cells. “By…

PET Supports Mesothelioma Diagnosis and Prognosis
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PET Supports Mesothelioma Diagnosis and Prognosis

ByAlex Strauss

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine imaging technique that highlights metabolic activity in the body.  PET scanning detects gamma rays emitted by a tracer that is delivered into the body via a biologically active molecule, typically FDG, a form of glucose. FDG PET is one of the imaging tests sometimes used to help diagnose and monitor mesothelioma cancer on the pleural membrane around the lungs. Now, nuclear medicine specialists in Milan say FDG PET may be even more valuable than clinicians realize for predicting outcomes – especially in mesothelioma patients who are responsive to chemotherapy. The study involved 131 mesothelioma patients, most of whom were men, with a median age of 66. Study subjects were treated for mesothelioma…

Tracking Mesothelioma with FDG-PET
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Tracking Mesothelioma with FDG-PET

ByAlex Strauss

The imaging method called positron emission tomography (PET) using the radioactive tracer molecule 18F-FDG is a valuable way to both diagnose and track the progression of malignant peritoneal mesothelioma. Nuclear medicine researchers at a Hospital in Barcelona, Spain reviewed the diagnostic and treatment records of 60 people with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma, a form of mesothelioma that spreads on the membrane lining the walls of the abdomen. The study subjects included 34 women and 26 men with a mean age of 53. All the patients in the study had had multiple 18-F-FDG-PET scans to diagnose or track their cancer. Eleven of the studied patients had an FDG-PET scan prior to receiving treatment. In all cases, the scans showed characteristic mesothelioma disease…

PET Valuable for Diagnosing and Staging Mesothelioma
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PET Valuable for Diagnosing and Staging Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans are one of the most effective tools for predicting how well a mesothelioma patient will respond to treatment, and for planning that treatment. That’s the conclusion of a team of British researchers who analyzed 15 different studies comparing PET to other types of tools for diagnosing and staging mesothelioma and for predicting survival and mortality. Eleven of the studies evaluated the role of FDG-PET (PET scanning using a fluorodeoxyglucose marker). Several of those studies found that malignant mesothelioma cells absorbed more of the FDG marker than healthy cells, making FDG-PET a good method for determining the extent of the mesothelioma. In these studies, patients whose bodies were seen on FDG-PET scan to absorb the most…

Handheld PET Scanners May Improve Mesothelioma Surgery
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Handheld PET Scanners May Improve Mesothelioma Surgery

ByAlex Strauss

Surgeons from one of the country’s most respected cancer centers say hand-held PET scanners could be a valuable tool for combating deadly mesothelioma cancer. Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York used the new handheld PET technology to pinpoint and remove 17 suspicious lesions in mice during surgery. The mice had been inoculated with mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer of the tissue that surrounds internal organs. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos. Positron Emission Tomography or PET scanning is a nuclear medicine test that is often used, along with MRI and CT scanning, to diagnose, stage and monitor mesothelioma and other cancers. PET scanning can produce detailed 3-dimensional functional images of internal tissues. The machine detects gamma rays…