When is the best time to do PET-CT examination for liver cancer? How to choose a hospital for PET-CT examination?

Everyone knows that any cancer tumor needs to be examined by pET/CT for auxiliary treatment, but pET-CT will have different effects at different stages of cancer tumors. Today, we will introduce the time to do pET-CT examination for liver cancer and how to choose a hospital for pET-CT examination. Come and have a look.

When should pET-CT be performed for liver cancer?

1. Locate the primary lesion of the tumor

Liver cancer is the main symptom of liver disease metastasis, and the primary lesion is relatively small and difficult to detect. Using pET-CT to monitor the health of the whole body can find the primary lesion for unexplained secondary liver cancer.

2. Early stage of liver cancer

If other examinations are unable to identify the specific condition of the tumor, and the main characteristics of cancer are rapid growth and vigorous metabolism, especially increased glucose fermentation rate, pET-CT is one of the most sensitive methods for early diagnosis of malignant tumors.

3. When the space-occupying lesions of liver cancer are relatively substantial

If the results of the pET-CT examination show active metabolism, it may be that the lesion is worsening. If the metabolism does not increase, it indicates that the possibility of benign lesions is high, and the choice of surgery should be cautious.

The stage and grade of liver cancer need to be determined4.

pET-CT can perform whole-body tomography at one time. In addition to detecting lesions at the primary site, it can also observe whether lesions have metastasized to other sites, which can effectively help doctors plan treatment methods when staging liver cancer. When there are symptoms of extrahepatic metastasis, even small liver cancers should not be treated with allogeneic liver transplantation or other methods.

5. When it is necessary to evaluate the treatment effect

Many treatments for liver cancer, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, require a determination of whether the lesion is necrotic. pET-CT can provide information on tumor activity to help doctors decide on the next treatment plan.

So, how do you choose a hospital for pET-CT examination?

How to choose a hospital for pET-CT?

1. Geographic location

Because the price of pET-CT examination is relatively high, it is beneficial for you to choose a hospital that is closest and can get an accurate diagnosis in order to save costs. Therefore, even if they are all tertiary hospitals, the level of each hospital will be different due to differences in pETCT equipment, imaging agents, operating doctors, etc., so everyone still needs to choose a reliable hospital for examination.

2. Contrast agent quality

Before a pET-CT scan, a substance called a contrast agent is injected. These radionuclides require special safety evaluation, quality assurance, and quality control measures. Because of their short half-life (115 minutes), they must be produced and used nearby within strict time limits, and the quality of the contrast agent is directly related to the results of the pET-CT scan. Therefore, it is particularly important for you to choose a hospital that can manufacture high-quality contrast agents in-house.

3. pET-CT filming and interpretation level

As the most advanced examination method in the world, pETCT has not been in the Chinese medical market for long, resulting in uneven filming and interpretation levels, which directly affects the accuracy of disease diagnosis. Therefore, hospitals with international-level filming SOp (standard operating procedures) and internationally and domestically renowned experts participating in and guiding film reading are the first choice.

Be sure to choose a regular hospital for pET-CT examination.