Thank you, Brian. We are dealing with precisely this issue. If J indeed has cancer, the tumor is occult--either too small to show up on a PET scan or has resolved. Either of these scenarios are commonly known to happen. It doesn't mean J doesn't have cancer.

J's initial PET scan lit up bi-laterally for neck nodes. However, a bilateral neck biopsy was not performed. Since he had been very sick with throat infections and allergic reactions just prior to the PET, it was not reliable. Instead of BX'ing the sites that lit up, the RO based the TX protocol on the PET results. That was a dangerous and destructive assumption. J has a new ENT and he will review path reports and most likely order scans. I have also found him a new RO. Incidentally, last week J's MO mailed him an excerpt from his chart clearly stating that the level two node positivity was not diagnostic of malignancy. Hummmm..a CYA maneuver? I'm sure he wants nothing to do with a faulty TX protocol.

A scan shows where to look for cancer...a biopsy is the only definitive procedure to determine that something is or isn't cancer. And...just because we can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there.