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Winter 2003 AAMC Adds PET/CT Scanner to Its Arsenal in the War on CancerAnne Arundel Medical Center’s acquisition of the sophisticated GE Discovery LS PET/CT scanner gives our region the most advanced tool available for detecting cancer. PET (Positron Emission Tomography) finds tumors by detecting metabolic activity, while CT (Computed Tomography) pinpoints the tumor’s exact physical location. The images are blended, fusing the anatomy and physiology into a single image.
“It’s like looking at a weather map on television. The geographic map is like the CT scan. The doppler radar screen is like the PET scan. Where you see the activity — that’s the tumor,” said Carolyn Core, AAMC’s vice president of Corporate Services. “Anne Arundel Medical Center is among very few locations in the country with this technology, which is a revolutionary tool in the field of medicine. For the patient, it can mean detecting a cancer early, while the cure rate is still high.” AAMC nuclear medicine specialist Jack Van Geffen, M.D., and radiologists Vernon Croft, M.D., and James W. Reinig, M.D., will be the primary users of the new system. “The timing is right for the addition of this remarkable technology to our cancer resources,” said Dr. Van Geffen. “We are on the threshold of a tremendous breakthrough in ways our hospital can diagnose and treat cancer—a breakthrough based on our purchase of the PET/CT scanner, and the Novalis and Varian IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy) linear accelerators,” he said. “These are exciting times for a community hospital that has graduated to the status of a top-flight medical resource for the Baltimore-Washington region.” |
