The Cancer Survivors Network (CSN) is a peer support community for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, families, and friends! CSN is a safe place to connect with others who share your interests and experiences.

different testing to check for reoccurance

sephie
sephie CSN Member Posts: 650
edited March 2014 in Anal Cancer #1
why are there so many differences in what is done to check us for reoccurances???? I only have DRE , proctoscope or anoscope , cat scan and blood work. others have anal ultrasounds, Pet scan, Dre, and CT scans. makes me crazy thinking that I am missing something that needs to be done. sephie
Like Care

Comments

  • z
    z CSN Member Posts: 1,414 Member
    #2
    Sephie
    Hi Sephie,

    I've had Pet/Ct scans, anoscopes, biopsys, and dres. I think that with what you have had they are able to check for recurrance. I was told that the tissue would be hard and not soft. I do have scar tissue. Lori
    Like Care
  • sephie
    sephie CSN Member Posts: 650
    #3
    z said:

    Sephie
    Hi Sephie,

    I've had Pet/Ct scans, anoscopes, biopsys, and dres. I think that with what you have had they are able to check for recurrance. I was told that the tissue would be hard and not soft. I do have scar tissue. Lori

    tests
    Z, thanks for your reply. i only had one pet scan just before treatment. just a scary thing for any type of cancer . I just wish Farrah had left all of her money for anal cancer research so that things could get done without so much damage to all the surrounding tissues and organs. thanks again sephie
    Like Care
  • lizdeli
    lizdeli CSN Member Posts: 569 Member
    #4
    sephie said:

    tests
    Z, thanks for your reply. i only had one pet scan just before treatment. just a scary thing for any type of cancer . I just wish Farrah had left all of her money for anal cancer research so that things could get done without so much damage to all the surrounding tissues and organs. thanks again sephie

    Me too
    Sephie
    I have the same tests as you. Only PET I had was pre treatment before going to MD Anderson. I was on 3 month follow up - blood work, protoscopy, DRE. CT was every six months. After my last appt they changed the protoscopy to every 6 months to coincide with my CT scans. MDA does CT vs PETs. I asked why and they said that was their protocol and that the CTs are more dimensional. But both are effective. I think it's what they are used to reading and they haven't found much difference between the two. I don't think I had any biopsies after treatment.

    Liz
    Like Care
  • z
    z CSN Member Posts: 1,414 Member
    #5
    lizdeli said:

    Me too
    Sephie
    I have the same tests as you. Only PET I had was pre treatment before going to MD Anderson. I was on 3 month follow up - blood work, protoscopy, DRE. CT was every six months. After my last appt they changed the protoscopy to every 6 months to coincide with my CT scans. MDA does CT vs PETs. I asked why and they said that was their protocol and that the CTs are more dimensional. But both are effective. I think it's what they are used to reading and they haven't found much difference between the two. I don't think I had any biopsies after treatment.

    Liz

    Pet/Ct
    I have had 3 Pet/Ct merged scans. Fortunately, my insurance paid for them. I was also fortunate that a lung nodule was found and I've since been treated, and it was a smoking primary lung cancer. Now they can also do the Ct from the neck down to the thighs to pick up any problems. As when the nodule was first found with the pet/ct it was 7mms and I had a follow up Ct scan and it was determined to have grown to 11mms and had to come out. Now when it was taken out it was 11mms so that proves to me that the Ct scans are very accurate. The benefit of the pet is to see hot spots, but it has limitations as it will also show hot spots which is just scar tissue. The pet scan showed a suv of .08 on the lung nodule and normal lung tissue was .05. Now if the lung nodule showed an suv of 2.5 or more then they could have determined it was more than likely malignant. Since it was under 1 cm the pet scan doesn't always light up. So Ct scans are just as useful. Lori
    Like Care

Discussion Boards