I would like you think about a couple things, and maybe find some hope in them.

The first is that a PET scan right after treatment is likely to have false positives in it. First, the nature of PET technology is not capable of definitively finding cancer. PET scans find cells that are burning sugar faster than normal. Many things cause that, and cancer is only one. It is very common for the area where the cancer was, and where the most treatment occurred to light up. It’s in massive repair mode and will be for months. If it did not light up I would be surprised. Even an area of inflammation from a back injury from a strain will light up. When I get scanned my knees and hips are bright as hell as they are always inflamed and painful from a life of working and playing hard. Radiologists only get sued when they miss something, so they comment on everything they see. That is historically a problem, particularly with non specific tests like PET scans. A PET scan has no way of finding cancer specifically. It finds cells that are damaged and in repair. To someone reading a PET scan that didn’t know your full history and treatments, and how long ago that might be very well written up as potentially cancer, but it cannot be determined from that scan.

The next step is to see what it is for sure. BEFORE additional treatments are applied. A simple incisional biopsy will give them a black and white answer. It’s hard to believe that after both surgery and particularly radiation that this soon after treatment it is still there.

Before you buy into this, know for sure. This scan is notorious for misinterpretation if done too soon after treatments. Wishing you good luck with this and a second opinion based on more than this one scan. B