Imaging

Barts Cancer Centre has a formidable array of state-of-the-art imaging technology available, it includes

3 Tesla MRI scanners.

MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. This type of scan uses magnetism to build up a picture of the inside of the body. Tesla is the unit of measurement quantifying the strength of a magnetic field. Prior to the 3 Tesla MRI scanner, the standard size machine was 1.5 Tesla. The 3 Tesla scanner generates a magnetic field that is twice the strength of 1.5 Tesla machines and 10 to 15 times the strength of low field or open MRI scanners.

64-slice time-of-flight PET-CT Scanner

A PET-CT scan combines positron emission tomography (PET) and computer tomography (CT) techniques. Combined PET/CT can be performed on any part of the body.

With a PET scan patients are injected with a radioactive form of sugar. Rapidly-growing cells such as cancer cells take up the sugar and the cells show up red on the imaging screen.

A CT scan takes a large number of X-rays and turns them into a 3-D picture of the area of the body being studied.

Combining both tests gives clinicians a clear picture of both the structure of the body and the cellular activity going on in specific areas. It also enables them to identify any distant spread of the cancer much earlier than any other imaging methods.