Great News ! (I think)

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vanser
vanser Member Posts: 100 Member
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi Everyone,
My mom went in for her chest and CAT scan results yesterday. (for those who don't know, she was diagnosed as stage III in Jan 2003).

The doctor said she was all clear - yipee ! But, then she said "we see the same mark at the juncture of the large and small intestine that we saw in February 2005, which is nothing to worry about". This freaked us all out - no one ever mentioned this mark in February 2005 or at her subsequent scans in July 2005 and February 2006. They think think its nothing to worry about since it has not changed since February 2005... (she has also had 2 colonoscopies during this period)

Any thoughts?

vanessa

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  • spongebob
    spongebob Member Posts: 2,565 Member
    #2
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    Hey, Vanessa -

    Probably nothing to be worried about. Stuff shows up in CT scans that is benign quite often. Folks see scar tissue in their lungs or cysts in/on their liver quite frequently that are not cancerous - or are sometimes actually dead cancer cells. Normal procedure is to "let them grow" and compare them to earlier films to see if there is growth. A PET scan will show cellular activity through contrast uptake if the spots are actually cancerous. If they aren't, they won't take the contrast (radioactive sugar water) - but your mom's doc probably weighed the effects of a PET scan versus the probability that it is "something" and determined you're safer to just wait it out.

    I know that waiting can be maddening - I have a "something" on my right kidney that we are "growing" right now. It's probably benign, but my aunt - who has the same genetic syndrome as I - lost one kidney and has a stent in the other's ureter because the genetic bug manifested itself in her kidneys instead of her colon. Gives me the shivers when I think about it - so I just don't think - which I do pretty well. Just ask anyone here!

    Cheers

    - SpongeBob
  • Betsydoglover
    Betsydoglover Member Posts: 1,248 Member
    #3
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    Vanessa -

    It would be so nice if medicine could give us a definitive answer, but interpreting a CT is pretty much "art". So stuff shows up and radiologists decide it isn't clinically significant, but some radiologist never mention stuff they don't think is significant, and others suddenly mention things they saw previously but never found significant, cuz there is nothing else to mention. Hopefully mntioning this "mark" is actually nothing new - and hopefully just something they never thought to mention before. (I know this isn't a huge help - but I ran into the same thing with a "lung nodule" - ultimate result is that is has been visible for 16 months and is not clinically significant, but the fact is I went thru many scans without it being mentioned and then suddenly it was mentioned cuz there wasn't anything else to mention. So, remember, this "science" is really relatively impaired!
  • KathiM
    KathiM Member Posts: 8,028 Member
    #4
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    I have 3 'cysts' on my liver. Every CT Scan dutifully reports them....my surgeon looked at them first hand when he was taking stuff out...said they were nothing of interest...
    CT Scans also show my ring of staples from my reentimosis....I'm so proud...almost like baby pics!!!!
    Good vibes that this 'mark' (or it is a 'fred'?) is nothing....
    Hugs, Kathi

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