Paws with purpose: The Pet Therapy Team’s lasting impact - Fraser Health

Findings may help identify patients who are less likely to respond to neoadjuvant therapy, potentially informing timely consideration of alternative treatment strategies or surgery 68Ga-HER2 PET/CT images before neoadjuvant therapy, at end of second cycle, and before surgery. (A) Baseline scan demonstrated soft-tissue lesion measuring approximately 2.3 × 2.2 cm in upper outer quadrant of left breast, with marked radiotracer uptake and SUVmax of 10.1. (B) At end of second cycle, imaging revealed residual lesion of approximately 2.2 × 1.0 cm in same region, without abnormal radiotracer accumulation. (C) Preoperative imaging demonstrated further reduction in lesion size to approximately 2.0 × 0.6 cm, with no abnormal tracer uptake detected. Image source: adapted from: Gao S, Zhang Z, Cheng C et al, Journal of Nuclear Medicine 2026 (CC BY 4.0)

A next-generation total-body PET/CT scanner can produce diagnostic-quality images in as little as 1 minute of scanning, according to research presented today at the 39th Annual Congress of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM'26). Even its fastest images were rated more highly on average than those from a standard PET/CT scanner. PET/CT is widely used to diagnose, stage and monitor cancer. Conventional PET/CT scanners have a short axial field of view, meaning they image the body section by section, typically requiring five to six 'bed positions' to cover the body from head to thigh. Long-axial field-of-view (LA-FOV) systems capture a much larger part of the body at once and detect more of the signal emitted by the radiotracer, raising the possibility of much shorter scans without sacrificing image quality.

Scientists have discovered an unexpected reason why Alzheimer's disease disrupts sleep, and their findings suggest that the problem may be reversible. In experiments involving mice with Alzheimer's-like brain changes, researchers restored more than two hours of sleep per day without removing the amyloid plaques associated with the disease. The surprising discovery points to an overlooked culprit: the brain's own immune cells. Rather than simply protecting the brain from damage, these cells can trigger inflammation that interferes with healthy sleep.