The first digital Positron Emission Tomography combined with a Computed Tomography (PET/CT) in France has been installed in the Centre Georges François Leclerc (CGFL) in Dijon. This cutting-edge system developed by General Electric Healthcare (GE Healthcare) was funded jointly by Dijon University Hospital and CGFL.
Dijon University Hospital and CGFL, both profoundly attached to public utility values and principles, collaborate for years, particularly in the field of functional imaging. Based on a common innovation and excellence ambition, they decided to acquire together a digital PET/CT in order to fulfill the continuous increasing needs of nuclear medicine imaging.
The PET/CT technology combines anatomical imaging provided by the CT scan with the functional imaging obtained by PET in order to visualize different metabolic activities. This new equipment, installed for the first time in France, presents a better sensitivity allowing to reduce both exam duration and the dose of tracer injected. This results in a better patient comfort while maintaining image quality.
This new technology will be used in several domains such as cancerology, cardiology, neurology or inflammatory diseases. The patients already benefit for this system since last August. This new PET/CT will be also fully integrated in the research activities. In oncology, targeted therapy is becoming an increasingly important component in the treatment of cancer. The need for monitoring treatment through imaging, initially based on the evaluation of tumor size, now rely on the evaluation of tumor metabolic parameters or target expression changes. This new PET/CT will allow to better monitor patient’s response to therapy and to develop new specific tracers that will allow to better adapt treatment to each individual patient’s disease.
