Augusta, GA - MCG Health, Inc. recently received approval from the Georgia Department of Community Health to acquire the first CT/PET scanner in the state of Georgia.

The Computerized Tomography/Positron Emission Tomography Scanner provides the best diagnostic imaging technology available for detecting cancers early, evaluating reoccurrence and showing response to therapy. The scanner allows detection of cancer within tissues and organs at the earliest stage possible. By detecting the cancer earlier, more lives can be saved.

In addition to treatment of patients with cancer, the CT/PET scanner has many other applications. One application is the simulation of radiation therapy. Physicians will be able to map out treatments more effectively. This is one of only a handful of CT/PET scanners in the country with this capacity.

"This scanner is a key to world class cancer treatment for the CSRA here at MCG Hospital and Clinics," said MCG Health, Inc. President and CEO Don Snell.

"The CT/PET scan brings a new dimension to the evaluation and care of cancer patients. The PET scan evaluates metabolism and therefore complements the more traditional studies we use the CT scanner to perform," said Dr. Russell Burgess, Medical Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at MCG Hospitals and Clinics.

The scanner allows the fusion of PET and CT images and shows metabolic changes on specific organ and tissue damage. This fusion allows physicians to obtain state-of-the-art images that would normally take two scanners to produce.

The CT/PET scanner will be located in the Georgia Radiation Treatment Center, 821 St. Sebastian Way. Construction and implementation should be complete in the next year to 15 months.

MCG Healthcare is the health system of the Medical College of Georgia and is comprised of MCG Health, Inc. and the clinical services offered by the faculty of the School of Medicine and the members of the Physicians Practice Group. MCG Health, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation operating the MCG Hospitals and Clinics, Children's Medical Center, the Georgia Radiation Therapy Center and related clinical facilities and services. MCG Health, Inc. was formed to support the research and education mission of the Medical College of Georgia and to build the economic growth of the CSRA, the state of Georgia and the Southeast by offering the highest level of primary and specialty health care.