Entry-level PET scan machine cost has dropped to a level of close to $2 million as vendors find
ways to produce lower-priced options on the market. Aside from the cost advantages, the baby
boomers are becoming aged causing an influx of the patient load for the PET/CT scanners which
are monitoring and also producing a diagnosis for cancers.
There are continuing and steadydevelopments in the area of radiotracers leading to growing PET/CT clinical applications within the field of oncology with new revelations in neuroimaging for diagnosis including Alzheimer’s.
The PET market is anticipated to grow significantly by the year 2021.
PET Scanning
Lower PET scan machine cost allows the medical community better access to the machines
which in turn is enabling patients the ability to have the scans. This imaging is found to be
significantly beneficial in particular for the use of oncology diagnosis.
PET or Positron Emission Tomography is a diagnostic imaging tool that takes radionuclides in
order to view exactly if your tissues and organs in your body are functioning properly. The PET
along with CT or Computed Tomography in combination lets the technician see both the
structure as well as the biochemical side. The PET is capable of observing disease prior to it
appearing on any other type of imaging exam.
The tracer that is sent into your body by way of injection or swallowing or by inhaling based
upon which tissue or organ will be studied, will gather around an area that has greater chemical
action meaning that is the area where the disease is. This area will show up on the PET image as
a brighter spot. This can indicate cancer or a type of heart disease as well as a brain disorder.
The History
PET scanning alone was in use back in the 1970s but it wasn’t made popular until it was used in
combination with the CT which was not widely used until the beginning of the 21st century and
rose to the point where upwards of over 90% of the PET/CT market was being used for the
monitor and diagnosis of various cancers by the year 2011. PET/CT was noted to be the obvious
choice as imaging equipment to be purchased in the year 2017, though, that didn’t translate to
the medical community’s actual purchase of the system due to the high cost. The PET scan
machine price tag was at one point elevated to upwards of $3 million prior to the current
developments which have lowered the expense by including the addition of a rubidium
generator.
Now that the PET scan machine cost has fallen to less than half of what it started out to be, the
healthcare industry is better prepared to include it in their preventive medical diagnostics
allowing their patients access to more in-depth studies and early-stage diagnosis. This gives a
greater opportunity for successful treatment and survival from a disease, particularly with
cancer diagnoses.