What is the difference between radiology (or rad-onc) and nuclear medicine? What types of procedures do NM physicians do?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Nuclear Medicine vs Radiology
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good question. i also want to know !! anyone?
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Radiation Oncology deals w/ using radiation as a tool to treat cancer (ex: somebody has stage III cancer of cervix and a radiation oncologist zaps her w/ strong radiation to kill the cancer, like around 10-20 treatments 3x/week for 1 month or so). This is one of the big 3 ways to treat cancer, 1) surgery 2) chemotherapy 3) radiation
Usu an oncologist will refer a cancer patient to a Rads Onc to get the treatment.
Nuclear medicine is a branch of Diagnostic radiology, and deals w/ using radioisotopes (remember chem class) w/ imaging to visualize anatomy/physiology/pathology of the body (ex: getting a PET scan to look for metastasis of cancer to brain, liver, etc; or using radiolabeled Iodine to assess the uptake of I- from the thyroid gland in a suspected Hyperthyroidism patient).
Usu some physician will refer a patient to a nuclear medicine doc to get a specific test done.
This is not a 100% complete answer, but is a general overview of the two specialties.
Usu an oncologist will refer a cancer patient to a Rads Onc to get the treatment.
Nuclear medicine is a branch of Diagnostic radiology, and deals w/ using radioisotopes (remember chem class) w/ imaging to visualize anatomy/physiology/pathology of the body (ex: getting a PET scan to look for metastasis of cancer to brain, liver, etc; or using radiolabeled Iodine to assess the uptake of I- from the thyroid gland in a suspected Hyperthyroidism patient).
Usu some physician will refer a patient to a nuclear medicine doc to get a specific test done.
This is not a 100% complete answer, but is a general overview of the two specialties.
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Radiology is the field of medicine which deals with medical imaging. Doctors trained in it read X-rays, MRIs, CAT scans, PET scans, etc.
Nuclear Medicine is a sub-branch of radiology which for historical reasons you can train in without doing a radiology residency first. They are trained to read PET scans, SPECT scans, and other types of images taken with radio-isotopes. Most people don't go into the field if they can get into a radiology residency. This is because radiologists are trained to read nuclear medicine images anyway plus all the other types of images. It is also difficult to get a job where you can do exclusively nuclear medicine without reading other images.
Radiation oncology is concerned with the treatment of cancer with radiation. Radiation oncologist do not read images but rather determine what kind and how much radiation should be applied where in a cancer patient. They then treat complications of the radiation therapy.
Nuclear Medicine is a sub-branch of radiology which for historical reasons you can train in without doing a radiology residency first. They are trained to read PET scans, SPECT scans, and other types of images taken with radio-isotopes. Most people don't go into the field if they can get into a radiology residency. This is because radiologists are trained to read nuclear medicine images anyway plus all the other types of images. It is also difficult to get a job where you can do exclusively nuclear medicine without reading other images.
Radiation oncology is concerned with the treatment of cancer with radiation. Radiation oncologist do not read images but rather determine what kind and how much radiation should be applied where in a cancer patient. They then treat complications of the radiation therapy.
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