though the "spot" absorbed the glucose tracer which normally indicates a malignant tumor..doc said that none of my bloodwork indicated rises in levels of whatever it is that indicates presence of cancer, so, there was a discrepancy,, google says that petscans sometimes give false positives.. reason i had the petscan is that i had a catscan in sept. 2005 for a seperate issue, and had a followup this sept. and they saw this spot that wasn't there last year. so they ordered the petscan. i know this question is long and drawn out but has anybody else experienced this?...thx..
2006-10-20 22:49:55 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Cancer
I have, and as it turns out, a PET scan will not only light up if there is cancer, but will also light up if there is a scar, which I had. But mine also lit up in my chest and what my 1st onc (notice I said "1st", I do not go to her anymore) thought was a breast cancer recurrence, was actually an inflammatory disease called Sarcoidosis.
So anyway, I don't think the PET is a 100% accurate measuring device, I believe it to just be a tool for cancer. Kind of like you cannot rely simply on tumor markers to diagnose cancer.
Good luck to you, I will be sending good thoughts to you.
2006-10-21 03:50:22 · answer #1 · answered by BriteHope 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I didn't experience PET Scan, it is in our work field. We have PET scan in the hospital. Positron Emission tomography is the latest in Cancer-detecting machine. It is really advance since what it is actually looking for is the abnormality in the cell's processes. So when your doctor had it, it means that it could only be the last thing you can do to make sure if the spot is cancerous or not. The false positives of PET are rare. BUT the problem of discrepancy may arise in the interpretation of result. First, if the PET result shows something is not looking good in your system or an abnormality in cells then it may not be indicative of a tumor BUT of other problem that your doctor has to find out. I guess, you have to geta second opinion on this. If you are still in doubt of the PET result,ask the technologist behind it. Your doctor aslo MUST have the capability to explain why there is such or why the false positive occured. Hope this helps.God bless
2006-10-21 06:31:46 · answer #2 · answered by justurangel 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My understanding with PET scan and abdominal cancer is that it is good to use as a 'tool' to see if there are any 'hot spots' left over. However it is not as accurate at diagnosing abdominal tumor as a CT would be.
My son has abdominal soft tissue sarcoma and he almost always has a CT scan. The only time he had a PET scan was at the end of his last treatment since he was 'no evidence' of disease. His oncologist wanted to establish a 'baseline' PET to compare with future PETs. Apparently active disease will show up as 'hot spots' on the scan. But, so will everything else. My son had an ipod and was changing the tunes on it, that activity showed up as a blur (muscles moving) on the upper portion of the scan. The PET needs to always be compared with a CT and/or other scans in order to be interpreted correctly.
So, my understanding is that if you have a soft tissue cancer it is better for diagnostic purposes to use the CT.
2006-10-21 09:25:55 · answer #3 · answered by Panda 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If there is truly a question as to whether or not this spot is malignant, a surgeon should be consulted so a biopsy can be performed. This is truly the only way to confirm a diagnosis of this type. Some things "light up" on the PET scan that are not actually malignant.
2006-10-21 13:33:59 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋