The more advanced the stage, the poorer the overall outlook for the patient. Whenever cancer is suspected, it is important to proceed with a full staging to establish if the cancer has spread. These days, there is a range of radiological investigations that can be used-plain X-ray films, ultrasound imaging, computer-tomograms (CT scans), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear imaging. The latest and most sophisticated machine to aid in the diagnosis and staging of cancer is the PET-CT scan (positron emission tomogram). The big difference between a PET-CT scan and all the other imaging techniques is that it combines a metabolic scan with an anatomic scan.In a PET-CTscan, a tiny amount of radioactive labeled glucose is injected into the blood stream. Cancers are like sugar. As such, the glucose preferentially taken up by the cancer cells and the radioactive substance "lights up" to identify the location, size and activity of the cancer. The CT part of the PET allows us to accurately locate the place the cancer is hiding. A PET-CT scan has helped us to reduce unnecessary surgery because it can pick up cancer that has spread, which some of the imaging studies may miss. There are research papers that sugest that no patient should go for a lung cancer operation without first going for a PET-CT scan. This method has been shown to cut down "futile surgery" (surgery that need not be done) by half in patients with lung cancer.
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