PET scan in Moscow

PET scan in Moscow is done in only two major scientific centers

The cost of investigations for foreign nationals is 29 000 Rubles (approximately 1100 United States Dollars) in PET center of Kremlin Hospital

To make an appointment for PET scan please call +7 (499) 322-26-14

More information about clinical application of PET can be found below

Detecting conditions early

A positron emission tomography (PET) scan is an imaging test that can detect changes within certain tissues or organs early, often before disease progresses.

A positron emission tomography (PET) scan is a specific type of imaging test that can help your doctor see how your tissues and organs are functioning.

Unlike other scanning techniques, a PET scan isn't designed to show structural detail of organs. Instead, it shows images containing more or less intense color to provide information about chemical activity within certain organs and tissues. This chemical activity may indicate areas of disease not detected by other scanning methods. In certain conditions, this may cause your doctor to alter treatment plans.

PET scanning is useful in evaluating a variety of conditions — including neurological disease, heart disease, infections, certain inflammatory diseases and cancer.

What is a PET scan for?

A PET scan is an effective way for your doctor to examine the chemical activity in certain parts of your body, which may help detect abnormalities in those areas. In particular, a PET scan may be used to detect or monitor:

• Cancer. PET scans may be useful in determining the extent of spread of certain cancers, assessing how the cancer responds to treatment, and determining if the cancer has recurred. Cancers may use more energy than surrounding tissues and therefore appear brighter on the PET scan. PET scanning may also be valuable in assessing how certain cancers respond to chemotherapy.

PET scans need to be interpreted carefully because noncancerous conditions can resemble cancer, and many types of cancer do not appear on PET scans. A PET scan can only suggest the presence of cancer; a biopsy is needed to confirm the presence of cancer.

Heart problems. Doctors use PET scanning to detect areas of decreased blood flow in the heart. A PET scan may reveal early coronary artery disease and damaged or dead heart muscle due to a heart attack. It can also differentiate nonfunctioning dead heart muscle from poorly functioning heart muscle that would benefit from a procedure, such as heart surgery, angioplasty or coronary artery bypass surgery, to increase blood flow to heart muscle. A PET scan can be particularly important in people who've previously had heart attacks.

• Alzheimer's disease. A PET scan can detect mild physiological changes in the brain even when no signs or symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are evident and before severe damage to brain cells and memory loss occur. PET scanning can also provide visual images of activity in the brain when a person is asked to read, talk or listen to music. Such uses of a PET scan may help scientists to better understand the progression of Alzheimer's disease in different areas of the brain. PET scanning can also be a valuable tool in differentiating Alzheimer's disease from other types of dementia disorders, such as frontal temporal dementia and Huntington's disease.

Doctors and scientists are also combining PET scans with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to create 3-D images of the brain, making it possible to measure the rate at which various regions of the brain use, deposit and metabolize certain chemicals.

Other brain disorders. A PET scan can help locate the origin of abnormal brain activity associated with seizures due to epilepsy and assess brain function after a stroke. In the future, doctors may also use a PET scan to detect memory disorders and certain mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia and depression. Such uses are currently being investigated.

Information from www.mayoclinic.com

PET scan for cancer screening

Применение ПЭТ позитронно-эмисионной томографии для диагностики рака (медицинские статьи на английском языке)

Application of positron emission tomography imaging to cancer screening.

• Yasuda S ,

• Ide M ,

• Fujii H ,

• Nakahara T ,

• Mochizuki Y ,

• Takahashi W ,

• Shohtsu A .

HIMEDIC Imaging Center at Lake Yamanaka , Hirano, Yamanashi, 401-0502, Japan .

Whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) with(18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is a diagnostic modality that can noninvasively survey the entire body and sensitively detect various cancers. In this study, we examined the potential application of whole-body PET for cancer screening in asymptomatic individuals. PET was performed in conjunction with conventional examinations including physical examination, laboratory study, ultrasonography and chest computed tomography. Between September 1994 and March 1999, 3165 asymptomatic individuals participated in 5575 screening sessions (2017 men and 1148 women; mean +/- SD age, 52.2+/-10.4 years). Follow-up periods were no less than 10 months. PET results were compared with the screening outcomes. Within 1 year after screening, malignant tumours were discovered in 67 of the 3165 participants (2.1%). PET findings were true-positive in 36 of the 67 cancers (54%). Most of the 36 patients underwent potentially curative surgery; thus a wide variety of cancers were detected by PET at potentially curable stages. However, PET findings were false-negative in 31 of the 67 patients (46%). 14 of these 31 (45%) were of urological origin. FDG PET imaging has the potential to detect a wide variety of cancers at potentially curable stages. However, PET imaging is not suited to screening test of general population because PET examination involves substantial cost. Copyright 2000 Cancer Research Campaign.

PMID: 11104553 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

The value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography with the additional help of tumor markers in cancer screening.

Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital , Taipei , Taiwan . m001022@ms.skh.org.tw

Cancer screening is a major healthcare issue. Screening modalities are constantly changing due to improvements in technology. Whole body positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-fluoro-2 deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) and the additional help of the serum levels of tumor markers have been considered as non-invasive methods for cancer screening in asymptomatic subjects. A total of 1283 subjects underwent whole-body FDG PET studies with the additional help of the serum levels of tumor markers in our center for cancer screening. The final diagnoses were confirmed by other imaging modalities or pathological findings in subjects with positive FDG-PET findings, and follow-up for at least 6 months were held in subjects with negative FDG-PET findings. Among a total of 18 (1.4%) subjects with cancers, FDG-PET detected cancers in 15 (1.2%) subjects but with false negative studies in 3 subjects with hepatoma (AFP = 129.6 ng/ml), prostate cancer (PSA = 25.1 ng/ml), and breast cancer (CEA and CA-153 were normal). False-positive FDG-PET studies were found in 24 (1.9%) subjects. However, none had abnormal serum levels of tumor markers. Whole body FDG-PET with the additional help of tumor markers could reduce the false negative and false positive results of FDG-PET only.

The detection rates and tumor clinical/pathological stages of whole-body FDG-PET cancer screening.

Department of Radiology, Tenjin-Kai Shin-Koga Hospital , 120 Tenjin-cho, Kurume 830-8577, Japan . ken_ono_skhp@yahoo.co.jp

OBJECTIVE: FDG-PET has been used for cancer screening, mainly in East-Asia, and cancers are found not infrequently. However, their stages have not been clarified. We examined the detection rates of various cancers using whole-body PET for the screening of cancers in asymptomatic individuals, focusing on their clinical and pathological stages. METHODS: Whole-body PET was obtained as a part of our cancer screening program among 3,426 healthy subjects. All subjects participated in a course of PET examination in conjunction with conventional examinations including a medical questionnaire, tumor markers, immunological fecal occult blood test, neck and abdominal ultrasonography and whole body computed tomography. A diagnosis and staging was obtained by an analysis of the pathological findings or by an analysis of the clinical follow-up data. RESULTS: Malignant tumors were discovered in 65 lesions found in 3,426 participants (1.90%). The PET findings were true-positive in 46 of the 65 cancer cases. The cancers were found in the following organs: the colon 14; thyroid gland 10; stomach 7; lung 5; liver 3; breast 2; and one each in the kidney, gallbladder, esophagus, pancreas and retroperitoneum. The stages were as follows: stage 0 5, stage I 17, stage II 10, stage III 7, and stage IV 6. One was an unknown primary. There were 19 false-negative findings (0.6%) on PET. Six cancers (0.18%) were missed in our screening program. CONCLUSIONS: PET imaging has the potential to detect a wide variety of cancers at potentially curative stages. Most PET-negative cancers are early stage cancers, and thus can be detected using other conventional examinations such as endoscopy.

The presentation of malignant tumours and pre-malignant lesions incidentally found on PET-CT .

Department of Nuclear Medicine, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center , 6 Weizman Street , Tel Aviv, 64239, Israel . evensap@tasmc.health.gov.il

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to determine the general and organ-specific presentation of incidental primary tumours on PET-CT. METHODS: PET-CT reports of 2,360 consecutive patients were reviewed and revealed 156 lesions suspicious for a new unexpected malignancy, in 151 patients. One hundred and twenty of these lesions, in 115 patients, were further assessed, by biopsy (n=84 patients) or by clinical and imaging follow-up (n=31 patients) for a mean of 17+/-4 months (range 12-25 months). RESULTS: Forty-four unexpected malignancies were found in 41 of the study patients (1.7%). Twenty-seven of the 44 incidental tumours were identified on the basis of their location, which was uncommon for metastasis of the known malignancy. Eight were detected as a result of either the difference in FDG avidity of the known malignancy and the incidental lesion or the presence of an incidental non-FDG-avid mass on the CT part of the study. Four tumours were synchronous carcinomas in patients with known colorectal malignancy, three were identified by virtue of the discordant response to treatment compared with the known primary tumour and two were detected as new sites of disease after a prolonged disease-free period. There was organ variability in the positive predictive values (PPV) of PET-CT findings for incidental primary malignancy or pre-malignant lesions: 62% for colonic lesions, 54% for lung lesions and 24% for thyroid lesions. CONCLUSION: Incidental primary tumours may be identified on PET-CT based on their location, FDG avidity, response to therapy and time of appearance. The PET and CT parts of the study appear to complement each other and assist in identification of these incidental tumours.

Screening for Cancer with PET and PET/CT: Potential and Limitations

Heiko Schoder 1 and Mithat Gonen 2

1 Department of Radiology/Nuclear Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York; and 2 Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York

Correspondence: For correspondence or reprints contact: Heiko Schoder, MD, Department of Radiology/Nuclear Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave., Box 77, New York, NY 10021. E-mail: schoderh@mskcc.org

Screening for cancer remains a very emotional and hotly debated issue in contemporary medical practice. An analysis of published data reveals a multitude of opinions based on a limited amount of reliable data. Even for breast cancer screening, which is now widely practiced in the United States and many European countries, there is continuing controversy regarding the appropriate age limits for screening mammography and, in fact, concerning the value of mammography itself. Similarly, there is no agreement as to whether screening for lung or prostate cancer is meaningful as currently practiced. Recommendations and decisions regarding cancer screening should be based on reliable data, not good intention, assumptions, or speculation. Therefore, we first explain the underlying principles and premises of screening and then briefly discuss current controversies regarding screening for breast, prostate, and lung cancers. Recently, some authors advocated CT, PET, or PET/CT for whole-body screening without support from reliable data. We discuss the potential financial, legal, and radiation safety implications associated with whole-body CT or PET cancer screening. We conclude from the available data that neither CT nor PET/CT cancer screening is currently warranted. Far from providing a desirable binary answer (presence of absence of cancer), in nonselected populations the procedures frequently yield equivocal or indeterminate findings that require further evaluation, with associated costs and potential complications. The clinical and statistical relevance of occasionally detected cancers is likely too low to justify population-wide screening efforts with these 2 imaging modalities. Ultimately, the true utility, or lack thereof, of PET and PET/CT for cancer screening can be assessed only in a prospective randomized trial. Because of prohibitive costs and the required length of follow-up, it is unlikely that such a trial will ever be conducted. Rather than spending time and resources on screening studies, medical practitioners should continue using whole-body PET/CT for diagnosing, staging, and restaging cancer and for monitoring treatment effects. Researchers should also investigate the utility of whole-body PET/CT for the surveillance of selected groups of patients who have cancer, who have completed curative treatment, but who remain at high risk for recurrent disease.

Key Words: cancer screening • PET • PET/CT