Just a few things:

1. Most ENT's don't order scans.

2. They (meaning my onco;ogist) gave me one as part of my original diagnosis as part of a triage, because I was advanced stage. They wanted to see if I was treatable.

3. A few here get regular PET or PET/CT scans.

4. Some have had none.

5. The NCCN guidelines for oncology practice don't indicate them yet as a standard part of followup - just regular physical examinations, intervals determined by time and an annual chest x-ray.

6. Any followup scans, annual MRI, are always ordered by my RO but she won't order a PET -and she's a professor of clinical radiation oncology at a top CCC.

7. A few here have had potential distant metastesis caught early by PET ot PET/CT.

8. As Mark mentioned, false positives occur frequently in the post Tx while healing is still going on.

9. We have had many discussions on PET or not to PET -do a search on PET and you will find everything there is to know about PET or PET/CT.


Gary Allsebrook
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Dx 11/22/02, SCC, 6 x 3 cm Polypoid tumor, rt tonsil, Stage III/IVA, T3N0M0 G1/2
Tx 1/28/03 - 3/19/03, Cisplatin ct x2, IMRT, bilateral, with boost, x35(69.96Gy)
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"You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (James 4:14 NIV)