Darrell,

I agree with Gary. Our ENT and radiation oncologist are strongly opposed to scans. However, the medical oncologist ordered one in November.

We were told by a very young doctor, about 25, following the CT scan during a hospital overnight stay that the scan showed a residual tumor mass on the tongue which was the primary site.

Then that same day, another doctor came to the hospital room and said that the CT scan showed a tumor in the neck.

Needless to say we were extremely worried for 3 or 4 days until we were able to see the ENT would did a visual exam of the tongue and palpation of the neck and said there was no tumor.

Subsequently we went to see the radiation oncologist who was quite upset that this scan was done because he said that they are the one who are left to explain the result to the patients.

He had the scan report in his office and he also let me read it. The report did mention something about a tumor in the neck area. The RO said it was rubbish.

The RO assured us that there was no tumor as he had looked at the scan films himself. The RO also went on to say that a lot of stuff is put in scan reports to protect the provider from possible future litigation.