Hey Y'all,
I haven't been on the Forum in quite some time. I recently went in for my 5 year scans. Unfortunately, I got a Positive PET for Base of the tongue. I don't think I have any symptoms for recurrence but I realize that due to the location it would be hard to notice. Also, it was only two weeks ago that I met with the ENT and she didn't see anything to be concerned about. Because of the Positive PET I'm going back in to see the ENT Doc on Tuesday. This has me pretty concerned. Has anyone here had an experience with a False Positive Pet Scan in the base of the tongue?

-Kurt

Kurt

You must be really worried to post twice. So I will answer twice
Kurt

For what it is worth, I have had two false positive PETscans that purported to show a recurrence of base of tongue cancer. My RO and the tumor board dismissed them after follow up MRIs.
what was worse in my opinion was the false negative Petscan that showed no cancer right before my cancer had come back.

The literature and studies show that for base of tongue cancer, the false positive rate is about 50% with some ancedotal reports of up to 90%. Again, these figures are just for base of tongue cancer. Petscans are extremely accurate for lymph nodes and help many patients avoid unnecessary neck dissections.

For the last three years, my entire CCC team and the tumor board and my ENT all recommended MRI/CT only so I don't have to go thru what you are going through right now.
Hope it is also a false alarm
Charm