Nuclear Oncology

Nuclear medicine is a branch of medical imaging that uses very small amounts of radioactive material to diagnose or treat a variety of diseases including many cancers, heart disease and certain other abnormalities within the body.

Imaging procedures in nuclear medicine or radionuclide are noninvasive and with the exception of intravenous injections are usually painless medical tests that help physicians diagnose health problems. These imaging scans use radioactive materials called radiopharmaceuticals or radiotracers.

Depending on the type of nuclear medicine exam you are undergoing, the radiotracer is either injected into a vein, taken orally or inhaled as a gas and eventually accumulates in the organ or body area being examined, where it emits energy in the form of gamma rays. This energy is detected by a device called a gamma camera, a scanner and / or probe for PET (positron emission tomography) and / or probe. These devices work together with a computer to measure the amount of radiotracer absorbed by the body to produce special pictures offering details on both the structure and function of organs and tissues.

In some centers, nuclear medicine images can be superimposed with computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to produce different views, a practice known as image fusion or co-registration. These views allow the information from two different studies to be correlated and interpreted in a single image, providing more accurate and more accurate diagnoses. In addition, manufacturers are now making single photon emission computed tomography / computed tomography (SPECT / CT) and tomography / computed tomography (PET / CT) able to perform both imaging studies at the same time.

Nuclear medicine also provides therapeutic procedures such as radioactive iodine therapy (I-131) that uses radioactive material to treat cancer and other health problems that affect the thyroid gland.