Nuclear Medicine

The nuclear medicine department at Kaiser Santa Clara is at the forefront of cancer imaging, using advance imaging techniques to accurately diagnose and stage cancers, assess cancer’s response to treatment, and monitor for recurrent disease in cancer survivors.

The department has dedicated nuclear medicine physicians who have extensive experience in the interpretation of nuclear imaging studies including PET/CT and Gamma/CT scanning.

Santa Clara Kaiser Permanente has a dedicated in-house PET/CT scanner and is the primary resource for PET/CT imaging for the South Bay and also serves the rest of the region.

Our nuclear medicine physicians are qualified and experienced to administer radioisotopes for cancer treatment, including treatments for thyroid cancer, relapsed / refractory lymphoma and painful bony metastases. We have a wealth of experience in the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid diseases and are intimately involved in the long term follow up and care of several hundred thyroid cancer patients.

What is nuclear medicine:

Nuclear medicine involves the use of small amounts of radioactive materials to image the “function” of an organ, tissue or bone and thus differs from an x-ray, ultrasound or other radiologic tests which evaluate for disease based on an “anatomic” or “structural” appearance. The ability to “see” cancer inside the body – before, during, and after treatment – is a crucial part of any cancer therapy.