Gallium Scan

Gallium scan
Hi Liz,
I found a little information that may answer a few of your questions. My doctor in the beginning didn't answer all of my questions and often left me feeling uninformed. He was "vague" also, but I finally got smart and every time he said something I didn't understand, or didn't explain something in terms I could understand, I would stop him in his tracks and start asking all of the questions that were racing through my mind. He use to get a bit irritated when I'd interrupt him, but now he always asks me if I understnad everything we have discussed. Make your doctor take the time to explain EVERYTHING he does concerning your cancer care...you are paying him to do so. I also write down my questions before each visit, that way I don't forget anything. Good luck with your test, and let us know what you find out. Here is some info on what a Gallium scan consists of and why it's done.

From Healthwise

A gallium scan is a nuclear medicine test. A nuclear medicine test uses a special camera to take pictures of specific tissues in the body after a radioactive tracer (radionuclide or radioisotope) makes them visible. Each type of tissue that may be scanned (including bones, organs, glands, and blood vessels) uses a different radioactive compound as a tracer. The radioactivity of a tracer decreases over a period of hours, days, or weeks. The tracer stays in the body until it is eliminated as waste, usually in the urine or stool (feces).

During a gallium scan, the tracer (radioactive gallium citrate) is injected into a vein in the arm. It travels through the bloodstream and into the body's tissues, primarily the bones, liver, intestine, and areas of tissue where inflammation or a buildup of white blood cells (WBCs) is present. It often takes the tracer a few days to build up in these areas, so in most cases a scan is done at 2 days and again at 3 days after the tracer is injected. Areas where the tracer builds up in higher-than-normal amounts show up as bright or "hot" spots in the pictures. The problem areas may be caused by infection, certain inflammatory diseases, or a tumor.