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When it comes to breast cancer, a physician's ability to accurately stage a tumor and determine the best course of treatment depends on the quality of information revealed through diagnostic imaging tests.

Once again, Palos Community Hospital offers patients the most advanced technology in breast cancer detection with positron emission mammography, or PEM. It is one of only two PEM scanners in the Chicagoland area.

Essentially, PEM is a specially designed positron emission tomography (PET) scanner for imaging breasts and other small body parts. For decades, PET has been a critical tool in the treatment of cancer. Just as PET uses injected radioactive isotopes to locate cancer cells throughout the entire body, PEM does the same but on a much smaller scale and with greater accuracy than breast MRI. PEM generates 12 tomographic slices per view, offering a 3-D perspective of the breast. With PEM, physicians can detect tumors as small as 2 mm, about the width of a grain of rice.

"PEM images show the location of suspicious masses, giving physicians a map upon which they can base treatment options and/or surgical plans," says Vicki McFarlane, administrative director for Imaging Services. "This technology allows doctors to better determine candidates for breast conserving surgery or lumpectomy. PEM also may be used to monitor treatments or to check for recurrence of disease."

Because PEM is a more advanced diagnostic tool, it is not recommended as a general screening test for all patients. But for women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, PEM provides the most advanced technology available to help fight the disease.

Palos Community Hospital's Comprehensive Breast Program combines the technological capabilities of digital mammography, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging and PEM with a highly skilled and compassionate staff. All members of Palos' breast health treatment team are trained in breast care and work together to plan your treatment. In fact, Palos Community Hospital is the only hospital in Chicago's southwest suburbs with three board-certified radiologists who are fellowship trained in mammography, a breast health patient navigator as well as two dedicated breast surgeons.

Source: Palos Community Hospital