| Patient Advocate (1000+ posts)
Joined: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,128 | My experience was sort of backwards from Amy's -- My ENT does the first post-rad scan at one year (unless he sees signs that one is necessary, of course) -- From other threads on this forum, it's clear that some Docs don't like to recommend scans at all and others scan often, so if one is really nervous about this, one can find a Doc with a different viewpoint.
FWIW, the longer one goes without recurrence of a cancer, the better the odds that one will not have a recurrence. According to my ENT, when I came out of radiation, I had a statistical probability of being cancer-free free for five years in the 60's -- One year post-rad, that probability has now climbed to 90%! And it improves every month.
BTW, I just posted my experience with the cost of a PET/CT scan in the Financials forum.
Age 67 1/2
Ventral Tongue SCC T2N0M0G1 10/05
Anterior Tongue SCC T2N0M0G2 6/08
Base of Tongue SCC T2N0M0G2 12/08
Three partial glossectomy (10/05,11/05,6/08), PEG, 37 XRT 66.6 Gy 1/06
Neck dissection, trach, PEG & forearm free flap (6/08)
Total glossectomy, trach, PEG & thigh free flap (12/08)
On August 21, 2010 at 9:20 am, Pete went off to play with the ratties in the sky.
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