Abdominal and oncological diagnostics (with breast diagnostics)

A fellowship in the Department of Abdominal and Oncological Diagnostics and the Breast Diagnostics Section follows the 5-year training period to obtain the specialist title as a 1-year subspecialization. It can be obtained either at the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University Hospital Basel or at external institutions with an organ-specific focus. The aim of a clinical fellowship is to continue and deepen the training process in a subspecialized discipline: the expansion of specific diagnostic knowledge and the practical consolidation of complex therapeutic procedures. The focus is on assuming responsibility and gaining independence through active participation in the training process of radiology residents, effective interaction with medical management (especially in communicating radiology examination results) and conducting reports.

The Department of Abdominal and Oncological Diagnostics is a central partner of the Emergency Center, the Clinics for Internal Medicine, the Medical Polyclinic, the Women's Clinic, Clarunis Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Urology, Clarunis - Visceral Surgery, Vascular Surgery and Clinic for Organ Transplantation, Clinic for Transplantation Immunology and Nephrology, Clinic for Dermatology, Oncology and Pathology.
Our close collaboration with colleagues from these clinics ensures specialist findings, precise diagnoses and individual treatment plans for our joint patients.The increasing complexity of therapeutic procedures requires integrated diagnostics: five times a week, oncologists, surgeons, gastroenterologists, pathologists, radiotherapists and radiologists meet at interdisciplinary and specialist tumor conferences to discuss therapeutic options and determine further measures and therapies.

Breast diagnostics is an integral part of the Breast Center. This specialist area deals with the diagnosis of diseases of the female and male breast.

Clinical focus areas

• MRI of the liver with liver-specific contrast agent to detect the smallest pathological changes in existing liver cirrhosis, healthy tissue or tissue in storage disease, metastases and differential diagnosis of focal liver lesions
• MRI and CT of the pancreas for acute or chronic inflammation, cancer or cystic changes in the pancreas
• MRI of the bile ducts (MRCP) for the diagnosis of stone disease, inflammatory changes and tumor diseases
• MRI of the gastrointestinal tract (HydroMRI) for chronic inflammatory bowel diseases with dynamic MRI to diagnose adhesions in the bowel
• MRI and CT of the kidneys and urinary tract (ureter and bladder). Cross-sectional imaging diagnostics are used for local imaging and, in particular, to detect the spread of tumors of the urogenital organs and to assess the response to treatment
• Multiparametric MRI examination (mpMRI) of the prostate. The MRI images are of great importance if a fusion biopsy is to be performed in addition to the conventional prostate punch biopsy. For the fusion biopsy, suspicious areas are marked on MRI images and targeted by the urologist, which enables a high degree of accuracy even for very small tissue areas that are suspected of being cancerous
• Pelvimetry using MRI (measurement of the birth canal of pregnant patients)

Oncological imaging plays a central role in the diagnosis and treatment of many tumor diseases and is an elementary component of initial diagnoses. Longitudinal oncological-radiological tumor evaluation is essential for the diagnosis of spread (staging) and is integrated into the entire course of the disease by monitoring the response to therapy (response assessment). In the radiological assessment of immuno-oncological therapy, we have the necessary many years of experience in the identification of atypical patterns of response to therapy.

Diagnostic imaging in the Department of Abdominal and Oncological Diagnostics is based on computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), sonography (ultrasound) and conventional X-ray diagnostics as part of fluoroscopy-guided examinations of the gastrointestinal tract. Minimally invasive blood vessel diagnostics are carried out using CT and MR angiography and non-invasive Doppler sonography.

In computed tomography, we focus on radiation dose reduction, together with research groups at the University Hospital Basel (oncology, urology), other university hospitals (Duke University, University Hospital Zurich, University Hospital Bern) and industrial partners (Siemens Healthineers).

The Diagnostic and Interventional Mammography Section uses digital mammography and tomosynthesis methods, including contrast-enhanced mammography, high-resolution breast ultrasound andbreast ultrasound and breast MRI, both for patients who have already had breast cancer and for patients with a significantly increased risk of breast cancer as part of the intensified early detection (screening) and aftercare program.

The PET/CT oncology and nuclear medicine procedure is carried out on an interdisciplinary basis with the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University Hospital.