Senior Member (100+ posts) Joined: Mar 2006 Posts: 114 | I think sooner than 6 months in-between is rare. Following my last treatment which ended in December 07, I had a PET/CT in April of this year. It was clear. I started having some chest/back pain two months later in June - just upon deep breathing. They sent me for a chest x-ray but it was clear. The pain persisted and had gotten worse, so last week they sent me for a PET/CT. It indicated metastasis to both lungs with PET/CT correlation on the findings. I've had a couple of people ask me why they didn't send me sooner for a PET/CT but I'd just had a clear one in April, so I think it was prudent to wait. I had no other symptoms except the chest pain, which wasn't constant. I'm not sure if it's different for CT alone as opposed to PET/CT fusion, but I've not heard of PET/CT being more often than 6 months unless they're trying to verify that a previous result was a false positive from healing tissue, etc. -Steve
Age 41 - Stage 2 SCC tongue Dx 2/06. Cisplatin x3, IMRT x35. Mets to neck node discovered 7/07. RND 40 nodes removed, margins not clear. Cisplatin, Taxotere, 5-FU Fall 07, then IMXT/Erbitux for 7 wks. Inoperable mets to both lungs and pleura Dx Oct'08. 4 cycles Carboplatin, Erbitux, 5-FU so far.
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