PET scans best in early breast cancer

RESTON, Va., Jul 27, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Researchers say chemotherapy effectiveness in advanced breast cancers can be evaluated earlier by using PET scans instead of other imaging techniques.

Positron Emission Tomography performed at baseline and after treatment is started "allowed prediction of response as early as after the first cycle of chemotherapy," said Dr. Norbert Avril, chief of nuclear medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Conventional imaging procedures, such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, plain film radiography and ultrasound, do not reliably predict therapy response early in the course of treatment, said Arvil.

Chemotherapy, which uses drugs to stop the growth of cancer cells, is typically used to improve survival and quality of life, said Avril He said it is essential to identify early those individuals who don't respond to chemotherapy "to avoid ineffective therapies and unnecessary side effects."

Arvil said the ability to individualize treatment gives patients and physicians options not previously available.

Avril co-wrote the study with Drs. Joerg Dose Schwarz, Michael Bader, Gabriele Hemminger, Fritz Janicke and Lars Jenicke, all from the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

The study appears in the July issue of the Society of Nuclear Medicine's Journal of Nuclear Medicine.