Hi My name is Bobbie I am a caregiver to my husband who had 48 radiation treatments and 8 chemo treatments and was done in Sept.2002. My question is that on the CT Scan and MRI scans done in November and First week of December indicated that a Biopsy should be done in same area as tumor is. Which it did shrink in size but stayed lit on the Pet Scan, the results from the biop said that there was squam cells in the biop but were not active at this time. I really do not understand this could you let me know what this means. Does it mean more cancer in the 3 biops that were taken or does it mean they have not formed more tumors at this time because they are sleeping for the time being. Brian or anyone out there can you give me more meaning to this? Thanks

I think that you need to get a clarification from your doctors. What you have described does not seem right. Biopsy that reveals SCC doesn't indicate "sleeping or inactive" cancer cells. If squamous cell carcinoma cells are reported in the biopsy, then they still exist as a threat. Your doctors need to explain in detail to you the pathologist's report, and exactly what is still active and what has been controlled, at least from the perspective of the biopsies that were done. There should be no confusion in your mind about this when they are done. It is essential that this understanding exists so you can make intelligent treatment decisions for the future. PET scans, as I have said many times before are helpful, but they throw up a bunch of false positives and false negatives, all of which must be verified by an actual biopsy.