My dad completed radiation in February, had a clean Pet scan 3 months ago, still can't eat, using feeding tube & we found out today that there is " activity" on his latest scan. This is bad, right? Is there any possible way this isn't bad? He had a barium test the day before the scan. Could that give a false positive? We see the rad dr & ENT next week. Will they definetly do surgery or will he have chemo again or both? How bad is if going to be? Pleae be honest. I'm sorry for all the questions, but I'm scared to death. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

What type of scan and where was this activity? Inflamation and healing can reveal itself as "activity" but too many unknowns to help you with this post.

Before you start thinking if the "activity" in bad, it would be good, (as Davidcpa suggests) to find out what kind of scan it was and where the activity is located. Maybe you or his primary caregiver could find out if you don't already know. When my son had a CT scan and an area of concern showed up on his lung, I was a basket case of worry but it turned out just to be scar tissue from pneumonia that he had previously. Right now you don't know if it's bad or not, so try not to worry, keep busy and get back to us so we can know what's happening.

Take it from some one who has had more than one test that looked bad at first but turned out to be not so bad once all the data was in. Scans can show healing tissue, infections, radiation damage and other non cancer related issues as active.

Its hard, but try and wait for the full analysis to come in from the doctors before jumping to any conclusions.

By the way I should say "do as I say not as I do" as many on this board have seen this happen to me as I jumped in the totaly wrong direction based on incomplete information.

There could be swelling causing it to light up. PET scans (assuming this is what he had) are known for false positives, it happened to me. This is especially common if the patient didnt prepare for the PET. When going for a PET scan you should avoid activity and rest the day before and of the test. Plus the day before drink lots of water (48 oz minimum), avoid carbs and sugar. This will help ensure more accurate results.

Hope it turns out to be a false positive instead of something more serious.

Hope all is well. Could be many factors as mentioned, and type of scan is a factor..PET/CT, MRT, CT, Sonagram..for acivity, maybe the uptake (hot spot) in a PET, which are highly sensitive, have high rate of false positives after treatmrnt, scar tissue, injury, etc, even talking during or before the PET can show activity. I wonder why another scan was done after a scan was done 3 months ago with an all clear? All the best, and hope for good news.

It was a PET scan and the activity they found was in his neck. He had BOT cancer which spread to lymph nodes in his neck before. I'm just nervous because I don't see how they could have done a PET scan 3 months ago and it was clear, then he doesn't have anymore treatments and there's activity on this PET scan. It doesn't sound right to me. Am I crazy to be worried about this?

Sorry. I have another question. What can we expect for our appts this week? We're seeing the radiation dr and the ENT. How are they going to determine if it was just a false positive? Can they tell that just by reading the report again or do they have to do a biopsy or what? Thank you!

To truly know if it's CA they have to do a biopsy. PETs show areas of active uptake of sugar. It could be healing, and injury or infection hopefully it's not cancer, but likely if they are concerned they can often tell if the nodes are clustered and by location - then they will do a biopsy - good luck and take care.

Thank you. Cheryl, so they can do a biopsy on the lymph nodes? Will they do it there in the office and will we find out right away or will they have to send it off? The waiting is killing me! Thanks for your help