Puzzling Pet

buzz99

Buzz just received the 1st PET results post treatment. The base of tongue tumor is gone (Yipee!!!) but there is a lymph node (near the carotid artery) in the right neck which is "metabolically active." This node did not show up in the pretreatment scan. What does this mean? Anyone have this experience? The Oncologist is going to confer with the Radiation Oncologist to decide what to do.

adventurebob

Early scan
I'm just thinking false positive as Buzz has only been done with radiation what now? 2 months. I've been done about 3 now and my doc says we're not doing any scans for a couple more as I'm still too hot. That's really good news about the BOT tumor though. I'm hopeful that the node is just a false positive.

Bob

ratface

adventurebob said:

Early scan
I'm just thinking false positive as Buzz has only been done with radiation what now? 2 months. I've been done about 3 now and my doc says we're not doing any scans for a couple more as I'm still too hot. That's really good news about the BOT tumor though. I'm hopeful that the node is just a false positive.

Bob

"Metabolically Active"
Just means that the PET is showing an uptake of sugar. Did you obtain a copy and what is the exact wording? What size is metabolically active and to what degree is the uptake? You probably knew all this anyway and Yes I'm hoping it's just a false positive. The possibility of cancer is real and you both already know that. Has he had a neck disection already? If not they are routinely done post radiation and chemo and may be your next big step although I suspect if they can needle biopsy that will come next. Alternatively, depending on size they just may wait another 3-4 months and run the test again. Besides false positives the test is inherently wrong 25% of the time anyway which is why this stuff is so elusive to even the oncologists.