Clinicians seeking to better stage their colorectal cancer patients  can now order a nuclear imaging study capable of determining the presence, location and extent of metastatic disease in patients with primary or recurrent colorectal cancer.

Called CEA-ScanŽ (arcitumomab), this radiopharmaceutical often detects and images disease that escapes detection by other modalities. Arcitumomab is a fragment of a murine (mouse) IgG antibody with a very high affinity for human colorectal cancer tissue that expresses carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). CEA is a protein secreted by more than 95% of all colorectal tumors.