Oncology Imaging

Medical imaging has become integral to cancer care, assessing the stage and location of cancerous tumors. By utilizing powerful imaging modalities including CT, MRI, MRA and PET/CT, oncology imaging radiologists are able to assist referring physicians in the detection and diagnosis of cancer.

A new weapon is emerging in the war against pancreatic cancer

U.S. and Japanese researchers have come up with a novel, image-based way to track stem cell signals so as to halt pancreatic cancer in its tracks. 

New tumor illuminator in the works

Texas researchers are developing a way to turn the diffusion properties of LED lighting against tumors.   

Diffusion imaging zeroes in on specific prostate-cancer sections

The advanced diffusion-weighted imaging technique RSI, short for restriction-spectrum MRI, is able to detect variations in tumor grade with voxel-level precision—and so could aid in customizing treatment of prostate cancer patients whose disease is spreading faster in some tumor regions than others.  

FDA approves new PET agent for finding neuroendocrine tumors

The FDA has approved a kit used to prepare and inject a PET imaging agent that can ferret out rare somatostatin receptor-positive neuroendocrine tumors in adult and pediatric patients.

Gains made against colon cancer, but it’s hitting more people under 50

Overall rates of colorectal cancer have been dropping for years. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the disease is on the rise among young people.

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Lifestyle factors emerge as the key variable in cancer avoidance, survivability

A major new analysis has entered the lifestyle vs. luck fray via JAMA Oncology, its authors having concluded that changes in lifestyle can ward off most cancers and that primary prevention ought to remain a priority for cancer control.

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Precision oncology trounces traditional tumor treatment in major meta-analysis

After conducting a meta-analysis of 346 phase I clinical trials involving more than 13,000 cancer patients, researchers have found that outcomes are significantly better when treatment targets the molecular characteristics of the individual tumor than when older, anatomic site-based approaches are used. 

Low-dose proton beam therapy helps save pregnant doctor and her child

Stricken with a brain tumor while pregnant with her first child, pathologist Rhea Birusingh, MD, of Nemours Children’s Health System in Florida, is now alive, well, cancer-free—and happy to be watching her son grow as normal following a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit. 

Around the web

Positron, a New York-based nuclear imaging company, will now provide Upbeat Cardiology Solutions with advanced PET/CT systems and services. 

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.