Doctors Weigh Risks and Benefits of Imaging in Cancer Patients
Allison Gandey
March 10, 2008 (Hollywood, Florida) — National guidelines continue to err on the side of caution when it comes to screening cancer patients. For example, routine computed tomography (CT) scans for lung cancer patients are discouraged, and the evidence does not support the use of posttreatment positron emission tomography (PET) in breast cancer. Experts presenting here at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 13th Annual Conference debated the pros and cons of imaging in cancer patients.
“There are no absolutes in imaging,” presenter Harmeet Kaur, MD, a radiologist from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told Medscape Oncology. “In many cases, the CT and PET findings will contradict one another. The only way to deal with these complexities is to take the clinical context into account.”
