MRI, PET and nuclear bone scan in cancer
Where MRI beats CT in cancer, how FDG, PSMA and DOTATATE PET work and what causes false results, Medicare-funded PET indications, and how to read a bone scan, including the superscan, the flare phenomenon and the lytic lesions it misses.
Tier 1Medical sciences concept
Written with AI assistance and fact-checked against the sources below. For exam study, not clinical decisions. How notes are made
At a glance
- MRI gives soft tissue contrast without radiation. It is the test of choice for the brain, spinal cord, pelvis (rectum, prostate, cervix), liver lesion characterisation, breast in selected cases, and sarcoma.
- PET images function. FDG shows glucose use; PSMA and DOTATATE target receptors on specific tumours. Each has predictable false positives and negatives.
- Bone scan shows osteoblastic activity. It suits sclerotic metastases (prostate, breast) and misses lytic ones (myeloma, renal).
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Sources
- MBS items 61523 and 61529 (FDG PET for solitary pulmonary nodule and NSCLC staging)AU/NZAustralian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, MBS Online, Checked November 2026
- MBS items 61563 and 61564 (PSMA PET for initial staging and restaging of prostate cancer)AU/NZAustralian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, MBS Online, From 1 July 2022; 61564 descriptor updated 1 November 2026
- Hofman MS et al. Prostate-specific membrane antigen PET-CT in patients with high-risk prostate cancer before curative-intent surgery or radiotherapy (proPSMA). Lancet 2020;395:1208-16The Lancet, 2020
- Boellaard R et al. FDG PET/CT: EANM procedure guidelines for tumour imaging, version 2.0. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2015;42:328-54European Association of Nuclear Medicine, 2.0
- Scher HI et al. Trial design and objectives for castration-resistant prostate cancer: Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Working Group 3 (PCWG3). J Clin Oncol 2016;34:1402-18Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2016
- RANZCR Gadolinium Contrast GuidelinesAU/NZRoyal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists
- Last updated
- 14 November 2026
What changed
- 14 November 2026 Turnstile bot check on sign-in and signed-out feedback