Dinah,

I was so sorry to hear that they have found more cancer. I can only imagine your fear and probably being down right "pissed off". I can only hope that the course you take will be a successful one. And we are hear to support you!

As far as doing the proper "diagnostic" testing - after two loved ones with cancer, I know for a fact that doctors treat cancer "symptomatically". If you are not showing symptoms, they won't go looking. Case in point - when my mother was diagnosed with SCC, they didn't order a lung CT (including liver and adrenals). Having been through this before, I said I wanted one done before any decisions about treatment were made. Lo and behold - they found a lung lesion. A bronchoscopy was unable to get any tissue, so 4 months out, we are still debating about the lung.

Regarding PET scans - yes, they report many false positives. But as Brian said, when you are dealing with someone with a known cancer, the uptake of glucose is a sign. PET scans should be looked at as another piece of the puzzle - to be used for whatever information they can provide. As far as the expense - I won't even go there. My mother's internist has recommended that she have a PET scan for the lung lesion - duh, why wasn't it mentioned before? So, that is our next course of action. Check-up with medical oncologist on 10/22 and this will be the topic of conversation. And we are not asking, we are telling him this is what we want done.

But this doesn't help you. Please know you will be in our thoughts, wishing you only the best.

Cynthia