In a clear recognition of the promise and value of molecular imaging, Medicare has significantly expanded coverage of PET for initial and follow-up evaluation of many types of cancer. The CMS move is based on clinical evidence from the National Oncologic PET Registry.
It shows that PET has proved itself as an exquisite and refined tool to differentiate many types of cancers," said Don Bogutski, President, Diagnostix Plus, Inc., Rockville Centre, NY. "This may be the step before PET being accepted as a repetitive, important tool to fine-tune the therapy that's applied once a cancer diagnosis has been made."
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"The PET reimbursement is very exciting news for the industry and patients because over a number of years the efficacy of PET in diagnosing, staging and helping in treatment of cancer has been expanded," said Dominic Smith, Vice President of Global Nuclear Medicine Marketing, Philips Healthcare.
Philips GEMINI TF
Big Bore PET/CT
The company's new GEMINI TF Big Bore PET/CT is reaching beyond the diagnostic, staging and follow-up procedures where PET/CT is typically used by introducing a PET/CT system for radiation oncology treatment planning. TF stands for time of flight, which accomplishes respiratory motion compensation.
The unit is installed at the University of Pennsylvania and will be used in the institution's proton therapy center, opening this year.
"For several reasons, we think the PET/CT is really significant. The first is that it has a large bore," said Chaitanya R. Divgi, M.D., head of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging at Penn. In addition to imaging large patients with the 85 cm bore, he noted that image resolution is not degraded and less radiation can be used.
"The other advantage is that we can image patients who are in their treatment planning positions, in the same position that they would have when being treated with radiation therapy," Dr. Divgi said.
With all this talk of clinical promise, you almost forget to worry about the business side of equipment sales for the high-tech scanners. The OEMs have reported sales slumps in the first quarter of the year, but things may improve with the continued application of PET/CT and SPECT/CT to prevalent disease areas, along with mounting clinical evidence of effectiveness, and the favorable reimbursements in the new PET schedule.
