CAT scan vs PET scan

Kathleen808

Hi All,
****'s surgery went well. They took 75% of his colon and as I mentioned, they took a lot of lymph nodes and we are waiting for the path report on Monday. The nodes were enlarged so the surgeon said plan on chemo. The surgeon also said he did not see anything on the liver. The original CAT scan 1/12/09 showed organs clear but a 8mm cyst on a kidney. Everyone who has looked at the CAT scan has said that they are not concerned about the 8mm cyst. Our question is does a PET scan give a lot more info than a CAT scan. In other words, might a PET show that the 8mm "cyst" is something to worry about? What about the dangers of a PET scan?

Also, **** has a apt with Dr. Lenz at USC in March. We are praying that we can get that moved up, maybe to next week.
Thanks for your time and support.
Aloha,
Kathleen

krystiesq

ct vs. pet
I've never heard of dangers associated with a pet scan. Without having the pet scan my mom urged the onc to order in september, we would not have caught her thyroid cancer (not related to colon cancer). I say when it doubt be thorough.

dixchi

krystiesq said:

ct vs. pet
I've never heard of dangers associated with a pet scan. Without having the pet scan my mom urged the onc to order in september, we would not have caught her thyroid cancer (not related to colon cancer). I say when it doubt be thorough.

Scans
Great to hear that your husband made it thru surgery very well and things
are stabke,

There has been stuff on CNN News on their medical section about radiation
concerns about scans but frankly in our position as CA patients they are
the most important tool for finding out whether there is cancer activity
so we have to have them. My oncologisst has ordered a CT scan every two
months as follow up to my liver resection. The PET scan shows up everything,
cancer or not, it shows up my torn rotator cuff and can show areas of
inflammation that are not cancerous.

CherylHutch

Congrats to ****!
For making it through the surgery... now you both can breathe easier while he recovers from the surgery

There is no "danger" from a PET scan, anymore than there is from a CT scan or Xrays. There is always the weighing in of "benefit" vs "risk". Yes, we all know that we do not want to be exposed to unnecessary radiation in our lives... on the other hand, without these scans the cancers would not be found early, nor would we know if our cancer has recurred at any point since it is the scans that would tell us. Since colon cancer is considerd a "high risk of recurrence" kind of cancer, it makes the scans even more important to us as tools for monitoring.

A PET scan checks the body from head to thigh at the molecular level. If cancer is forming and has not even necessarily formed a tumour yet but is in the process of doing so, a PET scan can find it... hence you are catching it at it's earliest beginnings and can then treat it accordingly.

As someone else mentioned, you can sometimes get a "positive" area light up that, in fact is NOT cancer, but is inflammation or infection... or some forms of scar tissue will actually light up the scan. That is why you will be asked a detailed questionaire about whether he has had any infections recently, previous surgeries, etc. This will be to rule out any of these areas that might light up the PET scan.

A CAT scan, on the other hand, focuses in on one specific area. For instance, you might have a CAT scan taken of the colon area. Or a CAT scan of the liver. Or a CAT scan of the lungs. If a CAT scan comes back clear, it means nothing was found on that particular organ/area, but does not rule out what might be going on elsewhere in the body.

Hope this helps... but trust us, all scans are good tools for keeping on top of what is going on (or not going on) in our bodies

Hugggggs,

Cheryl

Kathleen808

CherylHutch said:

Congrats to ****!
For making it through the surgery... now you both can breathe easier while he recovers from the surgery

There is no "danger" from a PET scan, anymore than there is from a CT scan or Xrays. There is always the weighing in of "benefit" vs "risk". Yes, we all know that we do not want to be exposed to unnecessary radiation in our lives... on the other hand, without these scans the cancers would not be found early, nor would we know if our cancer has recurred at any point since it is the scans that would tell us. Since colon cancer is considerd a "high risk of recurrence" kind of cancer, it makes the scans even more important to us as tools for monitoring.

A PET scan checks the body from head to thigh at the molecular level. If cancer is forming and has not even necessarily formed a tumour yet but is in the process of doing so, a PET scan can find it... hence you are catching it at it's earliest beginnings and can then treat it accordingly.

As someone else mentioned, you can sometimes get a "positive" area light up that, in fact is NOT cancer, but is inflammation or infection... or some forms of scar tissue will actually light up the scan. That is why you will be asked a detailed questionaire about whether he has had any infections recently, previous surgeries, etc. This will be to rule out any of these areas that might light up the PET scan.

A CAT scan, on the other hand, focuses in on one specific area. For instance, you might have a CAT scan taken of the colon area. Or a CAT scan of the liver. Or a CAT scan of the lungs. If a CAT scan comes back clear, it means nothing was found on that particular organ/area, but does not rule out what might be going on elsewhere in the body.

Hope this helps... but trust us, all scans are good tools for keeping on top of what is going on (or not going on) in our bodies

Hugggggs,

Cheryl

thanks
Thank you for all the info. I get it. Why don't they always go for a PET scan?
**** did great for the 1st 1/2 of the day and then he got behind on his pain meds. He was at an 8 for pain which is really not like him. The pain was by the drain that will hopefully come out tomorrow. Thanks for keeping us new people informed.
Aloha,
Kathleen

MoonDragon

CherylHutch said:

Congrats to ****!
For making it through the surgery... now you both can breathe easier while he recovers from the surgery

There is no "danger" from a PET scan, anymore than there is from a CT scan or Xrays. There is always the weighing in of "benefit" vs "risk". Yes, we all know that we do not want to be exposed to unnecessary radiation in our lives... on the other hand, without these scans the cancers would not be found early, nor would we know if our cancer has recurred at any point since it is the scans that would tell us. Since colon cancer is considerd a "high risk of recurrence" kind of cancer, it makes the scans even more important to us as tools for monitoring.

A PET scan checks the body from head to thigh at the molecular level. If cancer is forming and has not even necessarily formed a tumour yet but is in the process of doing so, a PET scan can find it... hence you are catching it at it's earliest beginnings and can then treat it accordingly.

As someone else mentioned, you can sometimes get a "positive" area light up that, in fact is NOT cancer, but is inflammation or infection... or some forms of scar tissue will actually light up the scan. That is why you will be asked a detailed questionaire about whether he has had any infections recently, previous surgeries, etc. This will be to rule out any of these areas that might light up the PET scan.

A CAT scan, on the other hand, focuses in on one specific area. For instance, you might have a CAT scan taken of the colon area. Or a CAT scan of the liver. Or a CAT scan of the lungs. If a CAT scan comes back clear, it means nothing was found on that particular organ/area, but does not rule out what might be going on elsewhere in the body.

Hope this helps... but trust us, all scans are good tools for keeping on top of what is going on (or not going on) in our bodies

Hugggggs,

Cheryl

Cheryl
Thank you, Cheryl, I learned something today! I knew they both did different things, but I wasn't sure what. My onc always does a PET and a CT together and now I'm glad to know he does!

MoonDragon

YAY!!
I'm so glad to hear that ****'s surgery went well! What a relief for both of you! I'm also really glad to hear that they didn't find anything on his liver!! Pain meds are super important as studies have shown that our bodies heal faster when on pain meds as when we're in pain our bodies are under undo stress and take longer to heal because our bodies are concentrating on other areas other than what is injured and needs to heal. That's not to say overdoing it is good but good pain management is key.
It's nice to know that you're a neighbor as I'm in Brea!
Fingers crossed and prayers said that **** will get in with Dr. Lenz within the week!

Hugs!

Jorie

CherylHutch

MoonDragon said:

Cheryl
Thank you, Cheryl, I learned something today! I knew they both did different things, but I wasn't sure what. My onc always does a PET and a CT together and now I'm glad to know he does!

Two in one
I'll answer both of you in this one message

Kathleen... the reason they don't do PET scans as often is for a couple of reasons. For the PET, although it is a small amount, you are being injected with radioactive glucose (which does leave the body very quickly, hence the advice to drink lots of water. They don't use radioactive glucose with the CAT scan, even when doing the contrasting dye ones. Also, PET scans are incredibly expensive... varies from province to province, or state to state. Some are as high as $5000/scan, and some as cheap as $2000/scan. Either way, that's expensive, hence they usually will only do them if other monitoring tools show a possibility for cancer to be active somewhere in one's body but the oncologist doesn't know where.

Once they know where the activity is, then they usually tend to use the CAT scan for that particular area, to monitor what's going on.

MoonDragon... most of the PET scans now are a combination of a PET/CAT scan machinery... so in fact, when you do get a PET scan, they can also take CAT scans as well.

Keeping in mind, the PET shows pictures at a molecular level and I believe they are in 3-D. CAT scans show bones and organs, but don't go down to the molecular level.

Huggggs,

Cheryl

funnyguy

MoonDragon said:

YAY!!
I'm so glad to hear that ****'s surgery went well! What a relief for both of you! I'm also really glad to hear that they didn't find anything on his liver!! Pain meds are super important as studies have shown that our bodies heal faster when on pain meds as when we're in pain our bodies are under undo stress and take longer to heal because our bodies are concentrating on other areas other than what is injured and needs to heal. That's not to say overdoing it is good but good pain management is key.
It's nice to know that you're a neighbor as I'm in Brea!
Fingers crossed and prayers said that **** will get in with Dr. Lenz within the week!

Hugs!

Jorie

PET
PET scans are very expensive and my ONC has to argue with the insurance company at every follow up....but his argument is valid...do you want to pay for long term treatment or an early diagnosis that can result in a healthier patient..?

As far as the danger...I'm with others...what have we got to be afraid of...after chemo, after directed radiation...what's a little more given by a guy or gal who takes it out of a lead container ..

msccolon

funnyguy said:

PET
PET scans are very expensive and my ONC has to argue with the insurance company at every follow up....but his argument is valid...do you want to pay for long term treatment or an early diagnosis that can result in a healthier patient..?

As far as the danger...I'm with others...what have we got to be afraid of...after chemo, after directed radiation...what's a little more given by a guy or gal who takes it out of a lead container ..

that lead container
am I the only one that just giggles when I see them pull that thing out of the silver tube? i mean, really, they are INJECTING us with it!
mary