+ Technology/Innovation
Nicholas Gueguen | Aug 15, 2017

University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute using new tool in tumor imaging

The University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute is leading the way when it comes to getting pictures of people's tumors.

The Huntsman Cancer Institute has a never-before-used CT scanner that gives doctors crisper pictures of tumors that are customized to each person. The Siemens Somatom Confidence 64 is allowing doctors to see more information about each tumor through the pictures, and, because of that, doctors can target treatment plans for each patient.

The Huntsman Cancer Institute is putting the Siemens Somatom Confidence 64 into action for strategizing how radiation will go. By looking at a CT scan, doctors are able to see how big a tumor is, how far it's gone, and where it is precisely in the body. 

Before the Siemens Somatom Confidence 64, radiation specialists used CT scans at only one energy level. With the Siemens Somatom Confidence 64, the radiation specialists are able to take scans of those with tumors using two energy levels, and the machine combines the scan pictures from the two energy levels to get a clearer idea of the tumors.

Organizations in this story