Challenge of Pleural Effusion Treatment PET / CT Scan for Mesothelioma Patients
Early detection of fatal and incurable mesothelioma and subsequent provision of radiation, surgical and palliative treatments for asbestosis is known to help the patient have the best possible chance of extending and improving the remaining quality of life.
Crucial to the process is the use of body scanning technologies, ranging from X-ray, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), computed tomography (computed tomography) or computed tomography, and the more advanced PET / CT (positron emission tomography and computed tomography).
The long gestation period of up to 50 years from the first exposure to asbestos and inhalation of the fiber dust to the onset of asbestosis symptoms can often mean that a diffuse malignant mesothelioma has reached an advanced stage and has spread to others. organ tissues.
While chest or abdominal X-rays can detect fluid accumulation, masses, or signs of non-cancerous pleural disease, radiology evidence of diffuse cancerous growths will only show up as a shadow formed by a single tumor, as in peritoneal mesothelioma. Similarly, although MRI provides a very detailed image of the inside of the body and can determine the severity of a tumor, this type of scan cannot yet clearly indicate a cancerous growth.
CT scans produce images, which provide a cross-sectional examination of the layers of the body to more easily reveal abnormalities at a certain depth within the body and can also accurately diagnose lung cancer earlier than chest X-rays, increasing the rate. survival by up to 20 percent. However, although CT scans can define pleural effusion, pleural thickening, pleural calcification, or possible chest wall invasion, they cannot differentiate between benign and malignant mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma patients who experience painful breathing caused by pleural effusions (the accumulation of fluid through the lung linings in response to the spread of mesothelioma tumors) may undergo a procedure to drain the fluid and replace the space with talc doctor.
New medical research has found that the fluid drainage process can interfere with PET / CT monitoring, which also involves injecting the patient with a radioactive tracer and the absorption level of cancer cells measured later by the scan, once after 14 days and then again. after 125 days.
It was found that by increasing the amount of marker absorbed by cancer cells, talc treatment can show that the disease is spreading faster than its actual progress.
The investigators concluded that to compensate for interference with assessment, a slightly modified way of interpreting scan results is recommended for mesothelioma patients receiving talc and pleural drainage treatments.