Your docs will determine the frequency, of course, but as a rule, you can expect to have the scans every three months for the first year or two, afterwhich they typically spread them out to every six months (if all is going well), until, after five years or so, they shut it down completely.
My husband finished chemo (SCLC Extensive) in June, had a PET scan at that time. The doctor doesn't want him to have another scan until the end of December. I don't think it's normal, what does anyone else think? With SCLC so aggressivem would you push for a scan every three months?
Hang out for awhile and you will hear this again and again: no two survivors are alike; we handle chemotherapy differently, we are given different treatments for what seems like the exact same cancer...it is the nature of the beast.
Doctors, I think, are becoming more reserved about providing scans with the understanding that the scans themselves provide radiation to the body in much greater dosages than, say, xrays and that, over time, potentially, the accumulation of radiation may be a source of cancer itself. So, if you trust your doctor (more to the point: if your HUSBAND trusts HIS doctor) then I would advise you stick with him/her and go with the plan. Only a general mistrust of my doctor would prompt me to go elsewhere and I would never leave simply because I disagreed with the person I hired for very good reasons to care for me!
Joined: Sep 2006
scans
Your docs will determine the frequency, of course, but as a rule, you can expect to have the scans every three months for the first year or two, afterwhich they typically spread them out to every six months (if all is going well), until, after five years or so, they shut it down completely.
I wish you the best.
Take care,
Joe
Joined: Oct 2010
yep... thats right
About the only dfference I have seen iis if you are on an investigational drug, then seems like it is usually every 6 weeks.
Joined: Mar 2011
During chemo I had CT scans
During chemo I had CT scans after 2 infusions to see response to treatment. I had 4 cycles/infusions of carbo/taxol every 3 weeks.
Joined: Apr 2011
My husband finished chemo
My husband finished chemo (SCLC Extensive) in June, had a PET scan at that time. The doctor doesn't want him to have another scan until the end of December. I don't think it's normal, what does anyone else think? With SCLC so aggressivem would you push for a scan every three months?
Joined: Sep 2006
Normal
Hang out for awhile and you will hear this again and again: no two survivors are alike; we handle chemotherapy differently, we are given different treatments for what seems like the exact same cancer...it is the nature of the beast.
Doctors, I think, are becoming more reserved about providing scans with the understanding that the scans themselves provide radiation to the body in much greater dosages than, say, xrays and that, over time, potentially, the accumulation of radiation may be a source of cancer itself. So, if you trust your doctor (more to the point: if your HUSBAND trusts HIS doctor) then I would advise you stick with him/her and go with the plan. Only a general mistrust of my doctor would prompt me to go elsewhere and I would never leave simply because I disagreed with the person I hired for very good reasons to care for me!
I wish your husband and his family the best.
Take care,
Joe