Anyone ever have false positive on scan?

angec
angec Member Posts: 924 Member
in Kidney Cancer #1
My mom has been diagnosed with a 4.3 cm tumor on her kidney. Also two nodes seem to have faint foci and are a little enlarged. They noted it was positive though on the report. I am wondering if anyone ever had this happen and then find they were just inflamed. She has been having a bad uti for over a month now and on several antibiotics. I am hoping the nodes are just inflamed and it picked up on the scan. Any one ever have any false positive scans? Thank you.. wishing you all well. PS my mom is 79 and will have robotic surgery next week.. :(

Comments

  • livealive
    livealive Member Posts: 127
    #2
    Questions
    What kind of scans ? If CT, they should be accurate enough.
    You should worry more about false negatives more than hope for false positives in this realm. Depending on where you are located, find a cancer center. MD Anderson in Texas, MSKCC in NYC, and UCLA in CA would be the right places, but I am sure regional hospitals are decent. Her age, 79, is somewhat of a concern if her general health is not good, but if she is healthy, the options would be surgery, preferable, partial laprposcopic nephrectomy. I am sure the other members here will provide more insight, as they have more experience, but, don't try to escape it without some active decision. BTW - I am not a big fan of "robotic" myself, but I know very little. My partial nephrectomy was open.
    R.
  • icemantoo
    icemantoo Member Posts: 3,361 Member
    #3
    livealive said:

    Questions
    What kind of scans ? If CT, they should be accurate enough.
    You should worry more about false negatives more than hope for false positives in this realm. Depending on where you are located, find a cancer center. MD Anderson in Texas, MSKCC in NYC, and UCLA in CA would be the right places, but I am sure regional hospitals are decent. Her age, 79, is somewhat of a concern if her general health is not good, but if she is healthy, the options would be surgery, preferable, partial laprposcopic nephrectomy. I am sure the other members here will provide more insight, as they have more experience, but, don't try to escape it without some active decision. BTW - I am not a big fan of "robotic" myself, but I know very little. My partial nephrectomy was open.
    R.

    Stay strong
    I had a chance to look at my CT for a then 2.6 cm tumor and the image was so clear that a 3rd grader could discern it. After waiting 8 weeks after surgery it turned out to be 4.2 cm. CT's show a 3 dimensional view and the size can be off but as far as i know not the image. My surgery was almost 10 years ago at age 59. Hopefully mom will be around for another 10 years to inspire the rest of us. A 4.3 cm is small enough that a 100% recovery is normal.

    Best wishes,

    Icemantoo
  • One Lucky Girl
    One Lucky Girl Member Posts: 68
    #4
    Robotic Surgery
    Hi Angec,

    I can't address your question re: scans but I successfully underwent Da Vinci robotic surgery four weeks ago (and I amazed by what this technology can do). It is the least invasive surgical option available. The first 3 days were hard (but I slept most of the time) and then I recovered very quickly after that. I only have 5 tiny incisions to deal with and I think that is much easier than with an open procedure. At 79 (I am 47) it may take longer for your mom to recover, but hopefully she will have an excellent outcome. Remind her to ask for all the pain medication she needs as soon as she needs it. In my case the nursing staff was right on top of it, so I didn't have pain. Please let us know how she makes out.
  • angec
    angec Member Posts: 924 Member
    #5
    livealive said:

    Questions
    What kind of scans ? If CT, they should be accurate enough.
    You should worry more about false negatives more than hope for false positives in this realm. Depending on where you are located, find a cancer center. MD Anderson in Texas, MSKCC in NYC, and UCLA in CA would be the right places, but I am sure regional hospitals are decent. Her age, 79, is somewhat of a concern if her general health is not good, but if she is healthy, the options would be surgery, preferable, partial laprposcopic nephrectomy. I am sure the other members here will provide more insight, as they have more experience, but, don't try to escape it without some active decision. BTW - I am not a big fan of "robotic" myself, but I know very little. My partial nephrectomy was open.
    R.

    These are petscans done
    These are petscans done without contrast as mom has a bad reaction to the contrast. Only reason i mention it is because the doc said maybe the nodes are just inflamed and it pics up as a positive hit. I wasn't sure if anyone else had that happen on these boards. False negative is something i don't want to think about but i hear what you are saying. Thank you and i hope you are doing well..
  • angec
    angec Member Posts: 924 Member
    #6
    icemantoo said:

    Stay strong
    I had a chance to look at my CT for a then 2.6 cm tumor and the image was so clear that a 3rd grader could discern it. After waiting 8 weeks after surgery it turned out to be 4.2 cm. CT's show a 3 dimensional view and the size can be off but as far as i know not the image. My surgery was almost 10 years ago at age 59. Hopefully mom will be around for another 10 years to inspire the rest of us. A 4.3 cm is small enough that a 100% recovery is normal.

    Best wishes,

    Icemantoo

    Hi Icemantoo.. how are you?
    Hi Icemantoo.. how are you? Thank you for the reply and encouragment. This kidney cancer is a scary though. I am surprised to see how many young ppl have it. My friend who was in his early 30's at the time had his kidney removed and is doing well 12 years later. But his was not in the lymph nodes. Happy for that. The surgery is next Thursday and boy are the nervs taking over. Trying to be positive.. at least for mom's sake and to keep her focused on life and going forward. The MRI showed one sized and the petscan showed another size. The doc thinks that the MRI also showed inflammation so the size looks bigger. Not sure of anything at this point, this is all new to me. But like you, I hope mom will be around at least another 10 years. :) Be well!
  • angec
    angec Member Posts: 924 Member
    #7
    One Lucky Girl said:

    Robotic Surgery
    Hi Angec,

    I can't address your question re: scans but I successfully underwent Da Vinci robotic surgery four weeks ago (and I amazed by what this technology can do). It is the least invasive surgical option available. The first 3 days were hard (but I slept most of the time) and then I recovered very quickly after that. I only have 5 tiny incisions to deal with and I think that is much easier than with an open procedure. At 79 (I am 47) it may take longer for your mom to recover, but hopefully she will have an excellent outcome. Remind her to ask for all the pain medication she needs as soon as she needs it. In my case the nursing staff was right on top of it, so I didn't have pain. Please let us know how she makes out.

    Hi there.. thanks for the
    Hi there.. thanks for the reply. I am glad your surgery went well. I hope you continue on a healthy course. The robot sounds so much better and safer with less blood loss, the magnification of the tissues etc. The age is a concern of course. Mom had her gall bladder out two years ago. There was some dialation of the collection ducts then on the kidney but the docs said it was not a concern, now two years later a 4.3 cm tumor in that very spot and two suspicous lymph nodes. I will remind her about the pain meds, thank you for mentioning it. How long were you in the hospital? I will let you know how it turns out. Hoping for the best for us all.
  • One Lucky Girl
    One Lucky Girl Member Posts: 68
    #8
    angec said:

    Hi there.. thanks for the
    Hi there.. thanks for the reply. I am glad your surgery went well. I hope you continue on a healthy course. The robot sounds so much better and safer with less blood loss, the magnification of the tissues etc. The age is a concern of course. Mom had her gall bladder out two years ago. There was some dialation of the collection ducts then on the kidney but the docs said it was not a concern, now two years later a 4.3 cm tumor in that very spot and two suspicous lymph nodes. I will remind her about the pain meds, thank you for mentioning it. How long were you in the hospital? I will let you know how it turns out. Hoping for the best for us all.

    5 days
    Hi Angec,

    I was in for a total of 5 days (admitted the afternoon before surgery). Here in Switzerland the average stay is 5-7 days, but it seems from reading this board that stays are much shorter in the US. Unlike a few lucky people on this board, I didn't spring out of bed the next day -- attempts to get me to walk were limited to encouraging me to just put my feet on the floor. But by day 2 I could walk to the bathroom and by day 3 I could walk all over the hospital (slowly). At 79, it may take your mom longer to reach those stages but hopefully once she starts to improve, you will see a big difference from day to day.

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