The NYU Clinical Cancer Center.
The Department of Radiology has a significant presence in the recently established NYU Clinical Cancer Center. This thirteen-story facility, located at 160 East 34th Street, was designed to meet the needs of patients with cancer.
Advanced imaging and other diagnostic procedures for cancer screening, treatment monitoring, and oncologic management are performed onsite. The fully staffed radiology facilities, including a complete complement of breast imaging techniques, ultrasound and PET-CT, ensure prompt interpretations and opportunities for timely consultations. A team-oriented approach provides the optimum in cancer care, and enhances patient comfort and convenience.
The Center for Women’s Cancers, encompassing the Breast Cancer Care Center and the Gynecological Cancer Care Center, interfaces with our Imaging Center. This program was designed to meet both the medical and nonmedical needs of patients with these diseases.
The Breast Imaging Center is located on the third floor of the Clinical Cancer Center, and is staffed by seven expert radiologists trained in mammography and dedicated to supplying prompt and personal care to patients. The faculty interprets over 30,000 examinations per year, providing service to a wide range of patients with diverse medical conditions. The Breast Imaging Center, containing state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, offers all modalities of screening and diagnostic tests. This includes analog and full-field digital mammography, dedicated breast ultrasound, and breast MRI. To refine diagnosis, procedures include fineneedle aspiration, which allows for immediate preliminary cytologic results, core biopsies, and vacuum-assisted tissue sampling. These examinations are tracked and analyzed by a comprehensive data and reporting system. The breast imagers participate in a multidisciplinary approach to patient assessment through daily and weekly conferences with surgeons, pathologists, oncologists, and geneticists. These radiologists are also pursuing research interests using our high field- strength (3T and 7T) MRI, MR spectroscopy, and fusion imaging in breast care.
Dr. Toth and the mammography team perform daily assessments
for image quality.
The Breast Imaging Team. (left to right) Rosina Ally, Breast Imaging
Manager, Hildegard Toth, M.D., Section Chief of Breast Imaging,
Ann Marie Kelleher, L.R.T., Lead Radiologic Technologist for
Mammography.
The PET/CT facility is located on the second floor of the NYU Clinical Cancer Center, in the primary Diagnostic Imaging Center. In addition to the radiologists, a full complement of nurses, CT and nuclear medicine technologists staff the center. The PET-CT scanner, a Siemens Biograph 6, offers the highest resolution imaging currently available for whole-body scans. This powerful machine is used for tumor detection, tumor staging, finding disease recurrence, and evaluating treatment response for a number of neoplasms, including lung, esophageal, breast, colorectal, ovarian, brain, and cervical cancers as well as lymphoma and melanoma. The combination of registered FDG-PET and CT images enables more precise diagnosis and management. In addition to cancer detection, PET-CT is being used for metabolic brain imaging in dementias and epilepsy. Areas of active PET-CT research at NYU include tracking of responses to new antineoplastic agents and 3D rendering of metabolic and CT images for cancer treatment planning. Among additional imaging capabilities in the Imaging Center is a bone densitometer, a scanner which can diagnose osteoporosis, providing important information for the global wellness initiative in women’s imaging.
The PET-CT Scanner. The scanner is operated by specialty-trained radiology
technicians Gayon Gray, N.M.C.B. (left), and Gregory Vaynblat, L.R.T. (right).
The Bone Densitometer. Playing the role of “patient” is Christine Compton-Perez,
R.N., one of the nurses in the Radiology suite. The technician performing the
examination is Edward Lehane, L.R.T.