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Nuclear Medicine

Using radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer

Nuclear Medicine

Using radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer

AOI > Centres of Excellence > Nuclear Medicine > Overview

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    Overview

    Nuclear medicine refers to the branch of medicine that involves administering radioactive substances in order to diagnose and treat a number of medical conditions, including some forms of cancer.

    When used for monitoring or diagnosis of cancer, your doctor will use a number of radionuclides, administered through IV or oral route or inhalation. These radionuclides are derivatives of radioactive elements including gallium, technetium, xenon, thallium, and iodine.

    Basically, which radionuclide is suitable for the nuclear imaging or scan depends on the target organ and the type of diagnosis. In contrast to the traditional imaging techniques which focus on the primary structures only, nuclear medicine and imaging procedures can visualize body’s functioning at molecular and cellular level. This allows the doctor to identify disease in its earliest stages. Also, it provides unique information to your doctor that cannot be obtained using other imaging procedures.

    The scans are also used to decide if the treatment is working and to devise more effective treatment for the patients.

    AOI, the top nuclear medicine hospital in India boasts of a well-equipped nuclear medicine department at most of its cancer facilities. The department is backed by a highly trained and experienced staff, ensuring global quality standards.

    About AOI

    American Oncology Institute, the best PET/CT scan hospital in India is equipped with the latest state-of the-art PET/CT machines. PET/CT has revolutionized many fields of medical diagnosis, surgical planning and treatment. AOI also has a dual head SPECT-CT Gamma camera installed with the latest hardware and software for all nuclear medicine imaging needs.

    With an exclusive thyroid cancer ward, AOI, the best hospital for PET/CT scan in India is one of the very few hospitals to have a complete nuclear medicine imaging and therapeutic facilities under one roof.

    What is Nuclear Medicine?

    During a nuclear medicine imaging procedure, small amounts of radioactive material is administered to diagnose, evaluate or treat a variety of diseases, including many types of cancers.

    The patient is asked to inhale, swallow, or be injected with radioactive radiopharmaceuticals which accumulate in tumors or regions of inflammation. Sometimes they also bind to specific proteins in the body which can be seen on PET scans. This helps in identifying a disease before it is seen on other imaging tests.

    In addition, these scans also determine the progression of disease or patient’s response to a prescribed treatment.

    How nuclear medicine can help in diagnosis and treatment of cancer?

    Nuclear medicine imaging is performed by using trace amount of radioactive material which is either swallowed, or inhaled or injected into the blood stream. These radiotracers travel through the infected area inside body and the energy beams rays released by these radiotracers are captured through a scanning device.

    Nuclear imaging provides superior images than the other imaging techniques which offer better diagnosis and treatment potential.

    These scans allow doctors to find the exact location of cancer tumors and identify progression of the disease or stage of the cancer. These also provide detailed information about how a body organ is functioning.

    Generally, nuclear imaging scans are noninvasive and painless procedures. At AOI, the best hospital for cancer detection in India, these scans are performed by trained technicians in our advanced imaging labs.

    Nuclear medicines for cancer diagnosis help in the following ways:

    • Detect cancer recurrence
    • Plan diagnosis and treatment
    • Determine the stage of a cancer type
    • Detect atypical tumors of the adrenal and pancreas glands
    • Examine patient’s response to treatment
    • Pinpoint location of sentinel lymph nodes for the surgical process for soft tissue or breast cancer tumors

    Nuclear medicine for treatment of cancer

    There are several types of nuclear medicines or radionuclide therapy that treat various types of cancers. These include:

    Radioimmunotherapy: If you have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that doesn’t respond to chemotherapy, your doctor may recommend this therapy. Also called RIT, the treatment option combines radiation therapy with immunotherapy.

    Radioactive Iodine Therapy: Sometimes your thyroid gland absorbs almost all the iodine you take in. During this treatment, radioactive iodine collects in thyroid cells, where it destroys both the gland as well as the cancer cells.

    Unlike some other forms of radiation, radioactive iodine therapy does this without hurting the rest of your body cells. It sometimes kills thyroid cancer cells that have spread to other parts of the body.

    Brachytherapy: This procedure makes use of high doses of radioactive material to kill cancer cells. In most cases, brachytherapy is more targeted, causes fewer side effects, and doesn’t take as long as conventional radiation therapy.

    Sometimes, you’ll get brachytherapy with other treatment modalities such as chemotherapy or surgery.
    Brachytherapy treats several types of cancer, including: brain cancer, breast cancer, head and neck cancer, bile duct cancer, cervical cancer, pancreatic cancer, etc.

    Y 90 Radioembolization: This treatment therapy is generally performed to treat hepatocellular carcinoma and liver cancer.

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