Thoughts On Lymph Node

hmm
Laura, sounds like this is something that needs to be biopsied. I'm pretty sure that's what my doctor would recommend. I'm dealing with second recurrence and that's what he's done each time to confirm. He also routinely gets a tissue assay done.

Good luck. Keep us posted. Mary Ann

laura25 said:

Thanks
Thank you Mary Ann... I hope to get more answers on Wednesday.. I did speak to my Hemo/Onc and he said that the lymph is of normal size and the SUV was 5, which was the same reading 3 months ago. So his stance was to rescan in 3 more months.

I meet with my gyn/onc on Wednesday and see what he thinks. My feeling is of course take it out now! The hemo/onc said if it hasn't grow, or had any more uptake in 3 months his thought is that its not a recurrence... of course I would like to beleive this, but my thought is the lymph SUV didn't decrease so the chance of a recurrence is still there.

I will let you know.... I know you've had dealings with lymphs, do you know what the SUV's were? I'm wondering if there is a an SUV number or the lymph size that says definetly do a biopsy.

SUV
I'll have to dig out my records to check that. I don't think 5 is very high - so sounds like a good idea to watch it. Where is the node?

I understand the desire to get it out NOW though. Hang in there. Hope you get all your questions answered to your satisfaction.

Hugs, Mary Ann

laura25 said:

Lymph update
Had my appt Wednesday with Gyn/onc and he agreed with hem/onc... rescan in 3 months. I asked him why wait? His response was the lymph is of normal size and an SUV of 5 is small. Put this along with the fact that the lymph hasn't changed in 3 months. His belief is the lymph could be reacting to a number of different things. He said typically with cancer the lymph size/suv would have doubled within that 3 months.
So I rescan in 3 months and hope for no change or its gone...
Thank you Mary Ann... I hope that you are well
Hugs to you, Laura

Hi Laura
Yeah. You now have orders to NOT fret for at least 3 months!!

Enjoy the holidays!! Mary Ann

SettledSue said:

So many new medical terms to
So many new medical terms to learn with this disease. What does SUV mean? I tried Googling it but only got car reviews. Sue

Help with terms
Standardized uptake values (SUVs)

The following is from: http://www.lymphomation.org/tests-PET.htm

PET Overview:
PET stands for Positron Emission Tomography. After treatment, doctors use a PET scan to see if the visible tumors are taking up the PET tracer.

The PET tracer is injected into the blood prior to the scan. The PET tracer has two parts: glucose, and a mildly radioactive component. As the tracer moves through the body the cells that are active take up the glucose along with the radioactive part of tracer.

Tumor cells are generally metabolically active (hungry) and will take up more sugar (glucose) than normal cells. The more glucose the cells take up, the more the cells light up. PET scans take advantage of this difference to help distinguish active from inactive tumor masses.

Injecting the PET tracer into your body allows special cameras to show cells that take up excessive glucose - cells such as malignant cells, but also reactive normal cells, that have a higher metabolic rates.

LIMITATIONS: While cancer cells often take up more glucose than normal cells, sometimes normal cells take up high amounts of glucose too.

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I hope this helped.

Marie who loves kitties