Evaluation and Diagnosis
You can think of your care at BIDMC in terms of four broad areas: your initial visit, diagnosis and staging, multidisciplinary conference, and treatment.
Initial Visit
Your initial visit involves physician evaluation and a physical exam, a review of any existing studies that you might have (pathology specimens, radiology films or CDs, and reports of these studies), and determination of next steps.
Diagnosis and Staging
We may need to do additional procedures and images for the evaluation and staging of your disease. One of the imaging modalities at BIDMC is a PET/CT scan. The PET/CT hybrid scanner is a state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging system that provides more precise information and localization for many cancers; and does it quicker than conventional PET imaging.
Making a correct diagnosis may also involve taking a biopsy – either a bone marrow biopsy to examine blood cells, or a surgical or CT-guided biopsy to obtain lymph node tissue samples. Usually biopsy procedures are not carried out at the initial visit, but arranged for at a later date, once we have gathered all your information and imaging.
Multidisciplinary Conference
In our weekly multidisciplinary conferences, we review all of your information and combined recommendations for care. Our radiologists report on your imaging studies and our hematopathologists (cancer and bone marrow specialists) review the results of your biopsy. Hematologists, oncologists and radiation oncologists voice their opinions. Together as a team – focused solely on you – we reach agreement on the best treatment options for your particular blood cancer.
