The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that it intends to cover the costs for Positron Emission Tomography (PET), a high-tech diagnostic tool, in the management and care of patients with breast cancer.

PET is a non-invasive imaging procedure used for measuring the concentrations of positron-emitting radioisotopes within the tissue. It produces cross-sectional images of tumors, but unlike standard imaging procedures, PET scanning looks not at the tissues themselves but rather at the activity going on within them.

For breast cancer, PET scanning looks at how much glucose (sugar) is being used by breast tissues. A higher level of the sugar molecule uptake indicates that these cells may have higher energy requirements, a characteristic of many cancer cells.

Cancer can cause abnormalities of blood flow or metabolism before any visible anatomic changes are apparent. Thus, PET can detect disease when standard imaging studies are still normal. PET also may help treating physicians differentiate benign from malignant tumors.

When a woman has been diagnosed with breast cancer, PET can therefore serve as a means of evaluating the extent of the disease as well as assist doctors in determining how well she is responding to treatment.

"Through this new coverage, Medicare is offering an important additional weapon in the fight against breast cancer," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson in announcing the new coverage. "PET technology can give physicians treating breast cancer patients potentially life-saving information not provided by traditional imaging."

Under its new policy, Medicare will cover PET full- and partial-ring scanners when they are used as an additional diagnostic tool to standard imaging techniques for staging a patient's breast cancer. Medicare will also cover PET imaging for monitoring how a tumor responds to treatment for women with locally advanced and metastic disease.

SOURCE:
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (http://www.cms.hhs.gov)