American Cancer Society Announces New Recommendations for MRI in Breast Cancer - New Guidelines for MRI screening for breast cancer in high risk women.
Local staging of breast cancer: In patients with biopsy- proven malignancy, breast MRI is used to determine extent of disease (multifocality and multicentricity) in the ipsi-lateral breast and to screen for disease in the asymptomatic contra-lateral breast.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy: MRI is used before and during the course of chemotherapy to evaluate chemotherapeutic response and extent of residual disease prior to surgical treatment.
Post-lumpectomy bed evaluation/scar vs. recurrence: MRI is applied in patients with prior lumpectomy and questionable recurrence within the lumpectomy bed on mammography and ultrasound.
Positive margins post lumpectomy: MRI is used to assess the extent of residual disease in patients with close or positive margins post-lumpectomy. MRI can help determine if re-excision or mastectomy will be necessary.
Chest wall invasion: MRI is indicated for the evaluation of chest wall involvement prior to lumpectomy or mastectomy.
Occult primary: In patients presenting with axillary lymphadenopathy and no mammographic evidence of malignancy, MRI is utilized to assess for an occult primary.
Palpable lump: In patients with a palpable lump and a negative diagnostic evaluation on mammography and sonography, MRI may be useful to exclude an underlying abnormality.
Problem-solving/difficult mammogram: MRI may be used as a problem-solving tool in the situation of a difficult mammogram.
Screening of high-risk patients: Screening MRI is now recommended by the ACS for women with an approximate 20 percent to 25 percent or greater lifetime risk of breast cancer, including women with a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancer and women treated for Hodgkin's disease.
Implant integrity: Non-contrasted MRI using silicone-sensitive sequences is used to assess implant integrity (intra- and extra-capsular implant rupture).
Charlton Heston knows first hand that detecting Alzheimer's Disease early gives patients extended quality time with loved ones. Heston announced in 2002 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's after a PET scan detected signs of the disease.
UCLA researchers have found that PET scans enable physicians to diagnose Alzheimer's before the symptoms set in, which gives patients options to help delay the progression of the disease.
Using PET to determine if patients have Alzheimer's would correspond to a 65% decrease in avoidable months of nursing home care, and a 48% drop in unnecessary drug treatment, according to Dr. Daniel Silverman, assistant professor of molecular and medical pharmacology and associate director of imaging for the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Center.
"Even a 6-month difference in the date of detection can profoundly affect the progression of Alzheimer's," said Dr. Michael E. Phelps, chair of the Department of Molecular Medical Pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
PET scans offer Alzheimer's patients HOPE.
Charlton Heston advocates the benefits of PET for early Alzheimer's Detection (public service announcement from the Academy of Molecular Imaging): >>More
Medicare approves PET in Alzheimer's disease. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced September 15, 2004 that it will provide limited coverage for the use of FDG-PET in the diagnosis and treatment of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early dementia in elderly patients meeting certain criteria: >>More
Alzheimer's Foundation of America Supports Medicare Reimbursement for Brain Scans.
Press Release announcing the organization's support of the federal government's proposal to provide Medicare reimbursement of PET for some individuals with suspected Alzheimer's disease. >>More.
