Gibson Cancer Center now offers on-site PET/CT services
Gibson Cancer Center Nuclear Medicine PET/CT Supervisor Monica Waters talks with Robert Harden, 80, of Lumberton, on Tuesday, Oct. 12, before being prepared as the first patient to be treated on the center’s new fixed PET/CT system.
As part of an ongoing effort to offer its patients the most cutting-edge medical imaging technology available, UNC Health Southeastern’s Gibson Cancer Center recently installed a fixed PET/CT scanner. The first patients were treated using the new system on Tuesday, October 12.
According to the manufacturer, Siemens Healthineers, the state-of-the-art system will better enable GCC to deliver the highest levels of efficient and effective care to patients throughout the health system’s service area.
A positron emission tomography, or PET, scanner creates 3D images of the body which are used when planning or monitoring cancer treatment. The premium PET/CT technology helps GCC providers detect disease and better understand disease progression for accurate and early treatment decisions, all with short scan times and a wide bore for enhanced patient comfort.
“We are thrilled to bring this technology to our community in a permanent model, as opposed to a mobile unit as has been offered on the main hospital campus in the past,” said UNC Health Southeastern Vice President and Interim Chief Operating Officer Lori Dove, whose responsibility areas include Gibson Cancer Center.
“This system enables our facility to identify the smallest of lesions early as a result of the high resolution and image quality, which supports an accurate diagnosis and more personalized treatment options to our patients,” added Dove. “By incorporating premium PET/CT into our practice, we can improve patient outcomes, reduce procedure costs, and help avoid ineffective therapies for our patients.”
GCC was expanded earlier this year, which added a second linear accelerator in addition to the fixed PET scanner. The expansion was funded, in part, by grants from The Golden LEAF Foundation, The Cannon Foundation, Inc., and the North Carolina Rural Building Reuse Program.
The center, established in 1995, is the only outpatient cancer treatment facility in Robeson County. The center offers medical oncology through Duke Health and radiation oncology in partnership with Southeastern Radiation Oncology Group. The center also offers a blood disorders clinic and its patients often volunteer for clinical trials and research.
For more information about GCC, visit https://www.srmc.org/care-treatment/cancer/.
UNC Health Southeastern’s new President and CEO, Chris Ellington, far right, took a tour of Gibson Cancer Center’s new PET/CT system hosted by GCC Administrative Director Steve Elgin, left, and UNC Health Southeastern Vice President and Interim Chief Operating Officer Lori Dove, on Tuesday, Oct. 12, the first day the system was used for patient treatment.
