Banner MD Anderson Rounds - March 2012

A PUBLICATION FOR COMMUNITY PHYSICIANS

MARCH 2012

Inflection point

at the leading edge of developing the

Biologic state imaging is the next step in the evolution of diagnostic imaging — and providing clinicians with better tools for personalized cancer treatment BY JAKE POINIER

“E

very decade or so, radiology has had an inflection point that revolutionizes how we image and diagnose patients,” said Dr. Don Schomer, Diagnostic Imaging Section Chief at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center. In the 1960s, it was catheter-based angiography, and in the 1970s, it was nuclear medicine. The ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s saw the advent of CT scanning, MR and functional MR, and PET CT, respectively. While each of these new techniques put new tools in the hands of radiologists and physicians, they also had their shortcomings. Nuclear imaging showed activity in three dimensions, but without anatomic precision. A CT gave an anatomic perspective, but didn’t add localization.

biologic state imaging, a hybrid technique that combines functional and molecular imaging to make decisions about the biologic state of an organ system or a tumor in question. Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center is

techniques, along with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and institutions such as UCLA and Stanford. Schomer describes the resulting images as absolutely amazing, offering a 3D image with a temporal component. “At Banner MD Anderson, we’re very passionate about cancer — that’s the reason we exist,” Schomer said. “For diagnostic imaging, our

STATE OF IMAGING “In the mid 2000s, PET really took off because of CT, because it heralded the concept of a molecular-based dimension,” Schomer said. “Now, you’re not just looking at anatomy, but how it’s functioning on a molecular level. There are a whole host of questions that a molecular study can’t answer, but an MRI and CT can. How densely packed are the cells in a tumor? How leaky are the vessels?” Schomer believes that the next inflection point in radiology is

Dr. Don Schomer, Diagnostic Imaging Section Chief at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, with Dr. Susan Passalaqua, Director of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

INSIDE 3 New hope for endocrine cancer patients

4 What’s happening at Banner MD Anderson 5 Nurses are heartbeat of hospital

6 ‘Flavor profiling’ aids chemo patients 7 Partial breast radiation treatment

speeds recovery