Hi Mark --

The surgeon we met with had about the same thing to say about PET/CT -- he said that "at first everyone was gung ho that this was "the answer" to determining whether there was any cancer left but since then we have found that it is not as perfect as we had hoped." However he added that the PET/CT was still much better than the earlier PET alone, but that so much depends on this ability of the radiologist to correctly interpret what is seen. He (the surgeon) had in fact done neck dissections based on positive scans and no cancer was found, so a lot of misery for no reason. He went on to say that it (PET/CT) is used at Hopkins as part of the evaluation procedure, not the whole cloth.

Barry then asked, well, what if there is a positive result? He answered, if the tongue "lights up" (recall Barry had a residual BOT tumor after his primary tonsil tumor was resected) we will do a biopsy right away. That's pretty straight-forward. If one of the nodes, Barry has a choice -- wait and re-do the scan (probably with an MRI as well) a month later or have surgery. I asked about needle biopsy in this case and he said that it can't be done during the scan, so afterwards becomes too much of a "hunt and peck" as to whether he is sampling the same "hot" area.

Well, let's hope it comes back negative and this is all a non-issue. Barry told the surgeon he just wants to "get on" with his life. Anyway. all three of his physical exams so far have been very favorable, especially as regards the BOT, so Barry and his doctors are all very encouraging.

We are off to Mexico in January, hell or high water, need a break!!

Still, fingers and toes are crossed!

Gail and Barry