Medicare Panel Advises Coverage of FDG-PET.

TORONTO -- A Medicare advisory committee has agreed that there. is enough evidence to support their coverage of [18] fluorodeoxyglucose-PET scans for women with suspected invasive breast cancer.

The recommendation, which must still be considered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), was greeted favorably at the annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine.

Dr. Peter S. Conti said the time is right to introduce [18] fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)PET scans into the management of women with breast cancer. Evidence of benefit has grown, and the cost has gone down to about $2,500 per scan.

Dr. Conti, director of the PET Imaging Science Center at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, spoke at the Medicare panel's hearing on behalf of the society and the American College of Radiology. He presented to the panel the published findings of FDG-PET studies in more than 2,500 women with varying stages of breast cancer as well as the unpublished findings of eight additional studies. The findings show that FDG-PET scans are useful in determining the staging, prognosis, treatment approach, response to treatment, and tumor recurrence in breast cancer.

The results of the unpublished studies considered by the panel were presented at the annual meeting. [Articles on two of these studies appear on this page.]

Dr. Conti said that he had urged the approval of FDG-PET "at the discretion of the referring physician" to diagnose known or suspected invasive disease and to aid in the restaging of breast cancer patients.

The Diagnostic Imaging ...