i went yesterday for pre-op for my neck dissection and for results from my petscan 8 weeks after 30 imrt treatments.
my doctor said the uptake was much less in the primary spot(oropharynx).so i asked if the cancer is gone and she said she really couldn't tell me that.just that the uptake was much less and that things looked good. i guess i was just looking for 100% confirmation. just more good but not the news i was looking for.
she said she would know more after the surgery and getting the nodes out. only one showed cancer before the radiation. it was and still is an odd node that is fleshy and up high under my jaw.

i hit the wrong button. i guess my question is should i just wait for cat scan after surgery to confirm the status in my neck. is there anything else to do?

This is just my observation here. It has always seemed to me that the only way they, the doctors, can accurately stage this stuff is with some form of surgery. I had no palpable nodes, but post-op pathology showed 2 out of 30 +. They did not show up on any scans but I went immediately to stage 3/4 after surgery. I'm not quite sure what you are asking here but I would wait and see what surgery reveals, it will give a definitive answer on the nodes. The thing about surgery is that they get the chance to examine the nodes.

Again, I'm not 100% clear on the question, but I hope that answered some of it. I'm not Brian, but in the old days here you could just toss a question out to the board and get plenty of replies.

I think Glenn is 100% right on this one. I had no palpable nodes and CT scan showed nothing in the neck. After surgery I had one node positive. You will know more after surgery and I hope it's all good news!

I agree with everyone.

Also, the rad (chemo also) really screws things up in your neck MRI/CT/PET wise. They usually can

I would say the the outcome of your PET scan at this point was very good and also predictable for this stage of your recovery. I personally wonder why they even give PET scans so early post Tx.

As has been discussed before, PET scans often "light up" areas that are healing so they won't give you a warm and fuzzy feeling about being cancer free just yet.

All of my initial MRI's post treatment sucked until the one 1 1/2 years out which had no "regions of interest". I have yet to get a post Tx PET scan - none of my medical team thinks I need one.

Early scans just seem to feed the anxiety mill.

Yeah, I just had my first post-treatment MRI and PET. My ENT called me about the MRI and said that everything looked good (no signs of cancer) but there were some areas that were still showing because they were inflamed from treatment. I had the PET Friday and haven't heard anything back yet about that and I woudl be anxious except I think teh ENT has been on vacation and anyway, I'm sure if teh MRI showed some stuff that is still inflamed the PET will too--he laready warned me of that.

I agree with all the very informed posters here ( you did not need to ask the question of me as you can see). Gary has made a very important point, a PET this soon after treqtment is going to light up things just from the healing process (increased metabolism in the area) after the treatments and the diagnostic value of it is highly questionable. I didn't get my first PET until 3 years out from treatment. Before then it was all MRI's and CT's. The surgery will tell you much. Likely the nodes will be full of scar tissues that were malignant before, and after radiation will be cancer free. This is of course assuming that with the IMRT radiation they also painted the areas of known mets (the neck nodes) with a lesser dose of radiation than they gave the primary.

Hey guys a couple quick questions on this subject. Rod had his pet scan 4 months after finishing treatment.Is this too soon? Also his doctors have not mentioned another one and he is a little over 1 year out, is this normal procedure? And lastly is this a fast growing cancer?Are 3-4 month check ups okay for catching any recurrence at an early stage? His last check up with the ENT, he was told to come back in 6 months.He is not real comfortable with that.Shouldn't it be more often in the first 2 years????Sorry for all the questions!Thanks so much for your help!Maureen

My brother initially had chemo/rad. In Jan. he had surgery and they got everything they could find. The cancer was back within two months and unstopable. In many cases this is a very fast growing cancer and I would encourage your husband to follow his instinct and be checked out more regularly. Better safe than sorry I always say. Besides, I bet you would both rest a little better at nights. Just my opinion. Best wishes,
Tonya

Gary posted on a ideal cycle before, but ultimately this is going to be up to your and your doctors. I had quarterly visits for the first 2 years, these were pretty much look and see, and if I had a complaint, a nose scope. At six month intervals in the first year I had an MRI and a chest CT. Starting in year three the scans bercame annual and I had my first PET. I recently had another PET at year 5 at my own request, doctors didn't think it necessary. I can tell you at the begining when things when bump in the night, I was back in the office to check out what it was... they were always small benign irritations in my mouth or throat. But in my book better early detection and safe, rather than sorry. My docs knew about how things had been missed for me in the first go around and were accepting of my paranoid requests. But as I told them, just because you are paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you!!!!

Hi Maureen.
I can't judge what an ideal time interval for checking is but in my case, my oncologist has just moved me to a 16-week interval now that I am almost 4 years post treatment. Before that, it was at a 3 month schedule and for the first year, it was even a monthly one as my doctor told me that my chance of recurrence was pretty high due to the advanced stage. Like Brian, my scans are now given annually and I only had PET/CT scan once last year when my blood tumor marker showed some abnormal reading. Other than that, I just have MRI,ultrasound to the neck and the abdomen and chest x-ray. At most doctor visits, I also had a nose scope which took only a few minutes. I shall have my next appointment in October and I won't expect anything abnormal.

Karen

Okay, I guess we'll see at his appointment in October. He will see his Radiologist then.Maybe he will request a ct scan or something then. I was just curious that he was a little over a year out and no x-rays or scans were being done.He just gets the scope. Sometimes I worry that since he didn't have the nodes removed like a lot of you did, he has a higher chance of recurrence since he was stage 4. His doctor said he responded very well to the chemo & radiation and he didn't need surgery so I guess they know what their doing. I hope so!!Karen,I love to read your posts since Rods cancer & tx was alot like yours!I hope he does as well as you! Thanks guys for the replies!