Positron Emission Mammography

There is a powerful new tool in the fight against breast cancer.

Six in the Morning anchor LeAnne Taylor reports it is a new machine that will help doctors find tumors earlier and give them added information to make better decisions for their patients.

Delpha Pitts is a breast cancer survivor. It was in 2005 when she felt a lump and went to her doctor.

"He did an ultrasound in his office and said he needed to do a biopsy, a needle biopsy in the office and he called me that day or the very next day and said that it was invasive ductal cancer and in December of '05 I had it removed. I had a lumpectomy," said Delpha Pitts.

Now she's in for a new test, a breast PEM or positron emission mammography. It's like a PET scan but it's just for the breast and it helps find tumors earlier.

Delpha is given an injection of radioactive sugar and within 45 minutes, the scan begins to look for high metabolism in the breast.

"Cancer is one of those areas of high metabolism so the area of high metabolism or the area of cancer will show up as a hotspot on this image, it's done by a modified glucose or sugar molecule being taken up by a cancer cell and creating some radioactivity that is then detected on the image," said breast surgeon Dr. John Frame.

For Delpha, she is test patient number 10. Tulsa Spine and Specialty Hospital is the only hospital in Oklahoma doing the breast PEM. But it's a test that could help many women.

"In conjunction with mammograms and MRI's and physical exams, it's going to look for areas of concern in the breast if a cancer's been diagnosed or it's going to be looking in a more detailed way into a breast that is tough to examine or tough to see with mammogram or MRI or it's going to be used in ladies in their routine follow up after breast cancer in their yearly exam to make sure there are no other spots of concern developing," said Dr. John Frame.

The breast is scanned in a similar way to a mammogram. The images captured will help determine the next course of action.

"Depending on what's found then LeAnne, we would go from there, perhaps do a biopsy, perhaps do an ultrasound, perhaps do another image to confirm what we're seeing on the PET scan," Dr. John Frame said.

For Delpha, this test will give her some peace of mind that the cancer hasn't returned and that's a big relief.

Delpha was a test case but the Tulsa hospital will begin seeing patients next week.

If you're interested in getting more information you can visit Tulsa Spine and Specialty Hospital's web site or call 918-388-5719.

The best idea is to talk with your personal physician first to see of the PEM scan is right for you.

There are only about 25 of these machines in the country, so Tulsa is fortunate to be one of those sites.