Mandi, to share my personal experience on this PET/CT and the 6 month follow up..

Finished the radiation treatment on Thanksgiving last year, then did the PET/CT follow up end of February. Yep, it showed the inflamation on the side I had the radiation, but also showed tumors on the opposite side. These were new tumors that popped up after the surgery and radiation. Because of the false positive problem, repeated the scans in March, the uptake showing the inflamation had reduced, but the tumors remained.

Bad thing, there were new tumors and mestasasis, good thing, the follow up scan caught them before they got too extensive. The rest as they say is history, more surgery, radiation, etc.

Next PET/CT is in August, would be year since the first one, or 6 months from the Feb scan. Should be interesting since I've now had surgery and radiation on both sides, what this one shows.

So, as Brian said, can be good to spot trends, but also a good idea every 6 months or so for the first couple of years just for safety's sake.

SCC Tongue, stage IV diagnosed Sept, 2002, 1st radical neck dissection left side in Sept, followed by RAD/Chemo. Discovered spread to right side nodes March 2003, second radical neck dissection April, followed by more RAD/Chemo.