Combined scan gives exact cancer diagnosis

A new device makes detection more easier. A combined scanner detects more lesions in cervical and ovarian cancer than the conventional method. It is notoriously difficult to get an accurate picture of ovarian and cervical tumours, because the tissue is dense and so it's not always possible to detect the border between malignant and normal areas. Doctors at the University of Texas now say that combining positron emission tomography (PET) with the more conventional computed tomography (CT) scan gives a more detailed diagnosis of such tumours.

In PET, abnormal tissue is detected from the pattern of its biochemical activity - in this case, the rate at which it takes up glucose. Combined with the anatomical picture given by CT, doctors get a better view of a tumour. In this study, a group of 10 women with ovarian cancer were examined, and in 60 per cent, combined PET CT picked up lesions not detected by CT alone.