PREVIEW-U.S. Medicare to weigh easing some PET scan limits

* Medicare to review PET scans for nine cancers

* Industry seeking unrestricted payments, end to registry

* Advisers to meet Aug. 20 to consider registry data

By Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Medicare officials are seeking advice on whether to lift a payment restriction on PET scans used for nine cancers, a move that could lead to wider use of the technology among elderly and disabled patients.

While the government program pays for positron emission tomography (PET) scans for breast cancer and heart disease, it only covers the other cancers if doctors submit patient data to a registry aimed at gauging the technology's effectiveness.

Groups representing doctors as well as PET scan makers such as General Electric Co's (GE.N) GE Healthcare unit say there is now enough data to support wider use and have asked Medicare to remove the registry requirement.

But use of PET scans rather than other imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to detect some cancers has drawn mixed reactions as scientists debate PET's usefulness for certain conditions.

The current policy, adopted in 2005, applies to brain, cervical, bladder, small-cell lung, ovarian, testicular, prostate, kidney and pancreatic cancers.

Next Wednesday, the Medicare agency will convene an advisory panel to review the data and consider whether there is enough to show the scans lead to better care for patients.

Medicare, which covers about 44 million older or disabled patients, is expected to make a draft decision in January before a final ruling in April. It could also decide to maintain the restriction or exempt only some of the cancers.

Lifting the restriction would make it easier for doctors to order the scans and allow use of the test more often.

"This will definitely increase the utilization of PET," said Dominic Smith, vice president of a Philips Electronics NV's (PHG.AS) unit that makes medical imaging devices.

Industry-wide, more than 2 million PET scans are given in the United States each year, a number growing roughly 500,000 each year, he added.

It costs $50 to register each patient and roughly 106,000 have been signed up as of June 30, according to Edward Coleman, past president of the Academy of Molecular Imaging, an industry group sponsoring the registry.

Siemens AG's (SIEGn.DE) Siemens Medical Solutions unit also makes PET scan equipment. Other companies make the tracer drugs given to patients for the scan.