Tests Might Diagnose, Predict Prost...(his is going to alter practice he said....),Health

A third study presented Tuesday looked at the benefit of using PET scans to diagnose bladder cancer. A research team led by Dr. Andrea B. Apolo, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, compared PET scans with CT scans and MRIs to see which imaging technique was better at diagnosing the disease.

PET scans were more sensitive and specific in finding bladder cancer and distinguishing local from metastasized cancer, which is cancer that has spread to other sites in the body. In 68 percent of the cases studied, treatment plans were changed based on the results of the PET scans, the researchers said.

The researchers said these results argue for using PET scans as standard practice in diagnosing bladder cancer.

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For more on prostate and bladder cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

SOURCES: Durado Brooks, M.D., director of colon and prostate cancer prevention programs, American Cancer Society, Atlanta; Feb. 24, 2009, teleconference with Jack Groskopf, Ph.D., senior research scientist for Gen-Probe Inc., San Diego; Monique J. Roobol, Ph.D., Department of Urology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Andrea B. Apolo, M.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City; presentations, 2009 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium sponsored by American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society for Radiation Oncology, and the Society of Urologic Oncology, Orlando, Fla.