Benefis Radiology Advances Nuclear Medicine Close to Home

Benefis Health System recently debuted a new high-tech imaging scanner as part of an ongoing effort to detect cancer earlier than ever.

The new PET-CT, the only one of its kind in Great Falls, required a lead-lined nuclear medicine section at Benefis Radiology.

“This is an amazing cancer detection tool,” said Paul Fulbright, director of Imaging Services. “A trace amount of radioactive material is injected into a patient and goes to the scene of any abnormal activity in their body, telling us where to look for cancer.”

The technology provides a detailed 3D map of cancer early in its growth.

The new scanner has better detection, higher resolution, and quicker scans – from about 30 minutes to around 10 minutes. It’s more efficient for staff and more accessible for patients.

“This is going to help lots of people,” Paul added. “We can do more scans faster for a better experience for the patient, helping them get answers.”

The scanner replaces a PET scanner at Benefis Sletten Cancer Institute. The new scanner is in Radiology in the South Tower to maximize efficiency.

Benefis will offer PET scans two days a week, plus plans to add two days a month of prostate-specific scanning. The machine will do CT scans the rest of the week.

Benefis also invested in a CT scanner for the Emergency Department, which means patients generally won’t have to be moved for this type of diagnostic scan – a faster process in an emergency.

What is a PET-CT scanner?

For a positron emission tomography (PET) scan, a patient is injected with a safe radioactive tracer. The PET scanner uses those tracers to detect diseased cells, which can indicate cancer and other conditions. The new Benefis scanner also can be used as a computed tomography (CT) scanner, another diagnostic imaging tool.