LUNG CANCER

PET Scan Can Find Lung Cancer Early

The earlier that your lung cancer is found, the better the chances for your successful treatment.

Cancer of the lungs is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women. Lung cancer is such a deadly disease because it often spreads before it is found.

Most lung cancer patients are between 55 to 65 years old when they are diagnosed. Sadly, the overall five-year survival rate is less than 10 percent for cancer patients with lung cancer. However, when lung cancer is found early enough for physicians to surgically remove it (before it has spread to other organs), patient five-year survival rate improves to 35 to 40 percent.

CareImaging PET Scan Clinic is committed to using the power of PET scan technology to find lung cancer early and therefore improve lung cancer treatment results and save Canadian lives.

How a PET Scan can make a difference with Lung Cancer

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Lung Cancer Screening

Lung masses have traditionally been evaluated through the use of planar chest x-rays, CT and MRI scanning. These tests can provide information regarding the size and location of the lung mass but they often cannot tell if the abnormality is benign or malignant. For this, the patient may need to undergo a biopsy. Not all patients are good candidates for biopsy due to the state of their health or the location of the mass.

Since most people with early lung cancer do not have any symptoms, only about 15 percent of lung cancers are found in the early stages. When lung cancer is found early, it is often because a chest x-ray, CT scan, or other test was being done for another reason.

This is where a PET scan can help.

If your doctor suspects that you might have or be at risk for lung cancer, he or she will most likely talk to you about your medical history and do a physical exam. To get pictures of your lungs, your doctor might want to do an imaging test. A PET scan is one of the most accurate ways to characterize something abnormal in your lungs.

Lung masses are usually first evaluated through a chest x-ray or a CT scan. These tests can provide information regarding the size and location of a lung mass but most often they cannot tell if the abnormality is benign or cancerous. Solitary pulmonary nodules and other lung masses can be screened with high accuracy using PET.

PET scans, available at CareImaging PET Scan Clinic in Ontario, are a diagnostic imaging test that helps doctors learn more about the lung tumour -- maybe even preventing an unnecessary biopsy.

Call CareImaging today at 905-712-9500 or email us at info@careimaging.com for more information on the benefits of a PET scan or to schedule a PET scan.

Lung Cancer Treatment

Before treatment, your doctors must determine if or how much the lung cancer has spread. This is called staging the cancer.

Treatment options, including whether surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy is the best option, as well as the outlook for your recovery depends on the stage of the lung cancer. If lung cancer is found and treated with surgery, before it has spread to lymph nodes or other organs, the five-year survival rate is about 42 percent. Knowing accurately whether you are a candidate for surgery is critical at this early point in time.

PET is the most useful test that you can have when doctors are staging or re-staging lung cancer because it is more accurate than CT or any other test.

Lung Cancer Follow Up

After lung cancer treatment, it is important to know if any active cancer cells remain in the body. In the past, the amount and type of chemotherapy that is used, as well as the area treated by the radiation beams in radiation therapy, was according to standard rules. PET allows the type and amount of therapy to be directed specifically to you, the patient, and the location, extent, and resilience of your type of cancer.

PET can be used to image lung tumour response to therapy and to detect recurrence in successfully treated lesions. Post surgery and other treatments, PET is extremely important to monitor to see if the cancer cells have returned.

If the cancer cells have been killed by the treatment, they will not absorb any of the radioactive glucose given in the PET scan. After treatment, although the tumour masses may still be present and seen on CT scans, the cells may no longer be alive-which can be shown by PET. Conversely, if the cancer cells have come back either in lymph nodes, scar tissue from surgery or another lesion, PET can see the accumulation of the radioactive glucose much sooner than a CT scan and treatment can be re-started sooner, improving your chance of beating this disease.

Call CareImaging today at 905-712-9500 or email us at info@careimaging.com for more information on the benefits of a PET scan or to schedule a PET scan.

Lung Cancer Statistics

During their lifetime, 1 in 21 women will develop lung cancer. Among men, 1 in 11 will develop lung cancer. More people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined. In 2002, there will be about 20,800 new cases of lung cancer in Canada. Experts predict that this year about 18,400 Canadians will die of this disease.

Lung cancer may take many years to develop. It is a silent killer because it can grow for a long time before it is found. Once the lung cancer occurs, cancer cells can break away and spread to other parts of the body (metastasis). Lung cancer is such a deadly disease because it often spreads before it is found.

Most patients are between 55 to 65 years old when they are diagnosed. Sadly, the overall, five-year survival rate is less than 10 percent for patients with the different types of lung cancer. However, when lung cancer is found early enough for physicians to surgically remove it (before it has spread to other organs), patient five-year survival rate improves to 35 to 40 percent.

More Resources on Lung Cancer:

Canadian Cancer Society
The Lung Association of Ontario
The Lung Association
Cancer Care Ontario