Mammo/PET scan ??

That's a good question! I
That's a good question! I usually have a mammo and an ultrasound. I haven't had a PET scan.


Jan

mamolady said:

PET / Mammo
Ms Sunshine,
These tests are done for different reasons.

A PET scan is typically full body. It is to look for hot spots that may be cancer starting. It is very non specific. Hot spots can include arthritis or other normal stuff. If there is a hot spot they are concerned about they will pick other imaging to get a better look at it. The type of imaging depends on the area of concern. Could be CT, MRI, X-ray or Ultrasound.

Mammo is still the standard for breast screening so if you have breasts you should have a mammogram. (Even if you are having other imaging after the PET scan.)

Cindy

PET not good at detecting tumors in the breasts
After a mammogram and biopsies found tumors in both breasts, I also had a PET scan, because there was some indication that I might have had metastases (fortunately, I didn't).

Before the scan, my oncologist made a comment about how the tumors that we already knew were in my breasts probably wouldn't even show up on the PET. Huh?! What kind of a test is this, I asked, when a KNOWN cancer doesn't even show up?

He explained that a PET is very bad at detecting cancer in the breasts -- as mamolady said, it's used to detect "hot spots" elsewhere in the body that may be cancer.

And he was right -- the four tumors that we knew were in my breasts didn't even show up on the PET. So I'll keep having my mammograms, thank you very much.

Hope that helps?

Traci