Brad Barrett: I had some symptoms for some time, I kind of ignored.
Narrator: Brad Barrett tries not to look back, only ahead. He was diagnosed in February with stage three colon cancer.
Brad Barrett: I just assumed I had a polyp or something and, it turned out to be a cancerous tumor.
Narrator: At Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Brad's doctors are using a combination PET-CT scan to pinpoint his cancer and guide treatment.
Dr. Timothy McCay: We actually do both scans while the patients lying on the table without moving ,and then we fuse the two together.
Narrator: For the PET scan part, Brad’s injected with a radioactive glucose and then moved through an image scanner.
Dr. Timothy McCay: Any cancer cells that are in there, they use more glucose and they show up brighter.
Narrator: At the very same time a CT scan provides another view.
Dr. Timothy McCay: You can see the lungs, the heart, the liver.
Dr. Timothy McCay: A CT scan shows just gross anatomy. You can see if there’s tissue someplace where there shouldn’t be.
Narrator: Merging the images helps determine what cancer stage a patient is in, and if it’s spreading.
Dr. Timothy McCay: Alright, here we go.
Narrator: The next generation PET-CT scan gives clearer pictures despite natural motion, like breathing. It’s the first of its kind in North America.
Dr. Timothy McCay: You end up with a picture that’s actually moving with the respiratory phase.
Narrator: The scans identify a range of malignancies including breast, renal, lung, colon, and brain cancers and can see lesions as small as 2.8 millimeters, the size of a peppercorn.