Oh, Oh. New Question

Folks24 said:

Scans

Well scans do show other "parts" besides what they are specifically scanning for. 

They caught my lymphoma when they did a CT scan of my chest. It picked up the liver area and I had a spot there I shouldn't have had. After a PET and biopsy, they found lymphoma in two places. I had no symptoms either. I am very very glad they found it. Early I hope.

   I  totally agree with what you are saying, but I have been on the site for a long time and never heard anyone say another type of cancer was detected while being treated for Lymphoma. I know that is agood thing. They give me a radioactive injection and a sugary cocktail about an hour before the scan. Just wondering if that is enough time for the sugary drink to be ingested by any organ tumors if they were present. I have heard the hard organ tumors have their own intra-structucture within our bodies. If thats the case it may take longer for them to absorb nutrients. maybe I am just thinking outside the bun, Idon't know. All kinds of thoughts go thru my head sometimes. I am sure a lot of people on here are the same way at times.   

NANCYL1 said:

MEDICAL VAGUENESS

Cobra:

You are asking a very good question and I do not think that a medical person, nurse or doctor, should be vague.  I have an appointment with my oncology doctor on Tuesday and I am going to ask him.

Nancy

Nancy,

  I agree with you. It surprised me when I asked the nurse and she was so vague. I even asked the Radiology tech and he said that it is something I would have to ask the Radiologist or possibly the Onc. Dr. This started to put some doubts in my mind of what would these scans show. Just how much do they reveal or not. I am sure a lot of people have wondered the same.  John

cathyp said:

Ah...Ct scans.  I had

Ah...Ct scans.  I had numerous CT's starting 23 years ago to stage and then check for Hodgkin's Lymphoma and recurrences.  I had so many that they stopped because of the enormous amonts of rads from treatment and these CT's.  In the past 5 years, I have had emergency scans done and it showerd lung nodules, for one.  So this snow balled into many more tests and eventually... they are just stable lung nodules.  Then, I had a protrusion on my pancreas noted on a CT and did that ever snow ball.  Many pancreatic screenings and further testing.  So now I have a stable pancreas protrusion. 

So what I'm trying to illustrate, in my experience,  is there are tremendous pros and cons to CT's.  Of huge concern is the radiation your body is subjected to.  As you know, radiation may cause secondary cancers.  Also, they pick up everything in your body.  It may lead to false positives, what happened to me numerous times.  Every time my docs and I were chasing something, I felt I shaved years off my life worrying.  Of course on the other hand, they may pick up a problem in the early stages. 

So it seems you and your doc need to discuss the pros and cons of a ct as it relates to you situation and how far you are out of treatment and if you are having bothersome symptoms.  I don't believe CT's are done routinely for the various reasons I have pointed out.  In my case, if I have a persitant symptom, we will do an MRI, (no radiation invovlved) and take it from there.

Good luck John sorting this all out!

Cathy

Cathy,

  I do not have any problems. I was just wondering what the radio-isotope they inject along with the sugary cocktail shows other than any uptake in the lymph nodes. I don't want to be thinking The PET/CT scan after injection and ingesting the cocktail can detect any other cancers in the body when in fact they can not. I hope thats not the case though. I know there is a lot of radiation from PET and CT scans.  As a matter of fact I get the Pet Scan when they are following up. Wish they would slack off and make them farther apart. John. 

yesyes2 said:

Caught my breast cancer

Hi John,

Don't know if you remember me as I rarely post anymore.  But like you I do follow the posts.  For me I just had my 3 year anniversary and remission from rchop on 2/15.  Yeah!!!

In answer to your question, yes PET/CT can find cancers other than lymphomas.  For me, 2 months after a negative mammogram my routine PET/CT picked up a small area of uptake in my left breast.  A breast MRI and biopsy followed with a diagnosis of state 0 breast cancer.  I also know of someone who's diagnostic PET for staging her lymphoma also found a liver and a lung cancer.  The injection of radioactive sugars are very attractive to hungary and fast growing cells, ie. cancer cells.  I believe that is what causes the increased activity on these scans.

I agree with others like Cathy, that it's best to speak with either the radiologist or your Oncologist.  I have learned through experience to have two radiologists review all my scans.  Mistakes have been made in the past.  That includes missing the BC for 6 months.  And I also do not do PET or CTs any longer because of the large radiation exposure.  If there is a recurrance my body will have symptons and than I will do scans but not until then.

Good luck to you John, and your continuing remission.

Leslie

  

Leslie,

  That is great they caught the breast cancer early. The PET/CT scans evidently do pick up other types of irregular growing cells. I have been wondering about it for quite a while. Like you I do not post as much as I used too either. I do read the post everyday. And Yes, I remember you quite well. Good luck with the remission and hopefully it continues. "Maybe" a few more will jump in to answer  John 

unknown said:

CAT Scan

As it is explained to me a CAT Scan and CT are the same thing and measure relative tissue densities. Standard Uptake Values are measurements of how much of the radioactive sugar a region absorbs and are associated with PET scans. Normally you get a low dose Ct scan with a PET scan simply to help locate the areas with high SUV from the PET. The answer about the other cancers is definitely yes, they do show up. The faste they are growing the higher the SUV. Actually indolent lymphomas like mine grow slowly and sometimes do not "glow" in a PET scan.

  Hey Members,

   I went to the Onc.Dr. today for a follow up appt. I go every 3 months as a routine. They did blood work and other lab work. I then saw the Dr. and I asked him this question. He said," If you have any active cells in your body anywhere the isotope and sugar mixture that you drink about an hour beforehand will make any cancerous cell in your body light up like a Xmas tree." I then said that kind of puts us a step ahead since early detection is the key. He said it sure does, but you don't want to have the scans too often. They are not healthy. Then he said all your blood work looks good like it has for 2  years now so we are going to cut you back to once a year for scans.  John 

onlytoday said:

Yay!!!!!

John,

Great news!  Thanks for letting us know how awsome your follow up went and i'm so glad you got an answer right from "'the horses mouth" about the CAT/PET question! So happy for your great report!  Also glad that your doc is sensitive to how often to do these tests.  I love it when a doctor understands that the testing can become overdone and actually dangerous after a while.  When they strike a balance and get it is just great- which is what your doc is doing!

I just got back online ( had visited my daughter for 3 days!) so I didn't see your question until today.  We are fortunate that we have had every thing scanned and had every abnormality looked at.  Unlike "healthy" folks.  Although I have always thought it would be helpful for everyone to get scanned head to toe at least once. 

My brother had head and neck cancer 4 years ago.  Got rid of it with chemo and rads.  Goes for his follow up PET/CAT every six months and low and behold they found a small lung cancer.  Got 5 days (!!) of rads and he's considered cured! They caught the lung cancer so early that they got it all!  So he's obviously not on the one year plan yet for scans but hopefully they can cut back soon.   Pretty cool huh?

I go for my 3 month follow up (in PR) of watchful waiting.  I expect blood work and an exam.  My doc is (thankfully) sensitive to the radiation issue from scans.  She hasn't committed to just an annual but does try to hold off with them as long as she can based on my exams, symptoms etc.  Good doctor.  No.. great doctor!

Very happy for your great report!!  May you continue to enjoy your beautiful grandaugter and GREAT HEALTH!

God Bless

Donna

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone that responded to my question. It shows that people are really interested as to what we are having done to our bodies.  John 

cathyp said:

So now I'm cofused! You first

So now I'm cofused! You first asked aboit CT scans.  Injectable dyes, or an oral contrast agent may be given to enhance your organs and body structures. If you are consuming glucose with an isotope I think you are talking about a PET scan, not a CT scan. Surprisingly in 23 years I've never had a PET scan.

Cathy,

  I was not trying to confuse anybody. It seemed like most of the people on here have CT scans and not PET scans. I only had 1 CT scan in my life and that was when they noticed the swollen lymph nodes. This led to the PET scan and isotopes and sugary mixture. This confirmed what was going on. The biopsy determined the type. As time went on I started wondering about if other cancers would show up or not. Some people on the site including you confirmed it would. I asked the Onc. Dr. yesterday and he also assured me it would. He said the isotope and sugary mix would light up any area that was active. I did not ask him about the CT scan because I do not get them. That may be a good question for someone to ask. Also why is 1 type of scan better or different than the other.   John