Wondering if anyone has had their MD order a PET scan to check to make sure everything is clear 6 mos. after surgery. My mother is scheduled to have one. Her doctor did not see anything, but says he wants to make sure because if something is to recur it is usually within the first 2 years. He also said that 50% of positive results with a PET are false positive and would require him to do a biopsy to make sure. Just curious if others have done this.

I don't know about afterwards but the PET scan I got yesterday verfied only the tumor site and I will be anxious to receive more PET scans to insure that I remain cancer free after treatment.

False positives with a PET are relatively common, and all positives from a PET should be verified with a biopsy. My own person protocols for follow up involve an annual MRI of my complete head and neck, and a spiral CT scan of my lungs. Every 4 months I have an oral and throat exam that is visual and incorporates manual palpation of the nodes. Of course I still look around in my mouth with a flashlight at least once a month....

My logic is this. We pretty much know the routes of metastasis for oral cancer, and the overwhelming majority of the time it is going to go to the aerodigestive tract. That's where I'm looking. The ones that leap to something different than this, like the kidneys etc. are few, but do occasionally happen. There is an overkill issue at work here. I want to do enough, but I don't want to be obsessive about it either. There is also the issue of how much and how often an insurance carrier will pay the bill. Of course that looking around in my mouth with the flashlight could be considered obsessive, but if it is my power to see it and catch something early, I want to.

Brian, looking around with a flashlight is how I FOUND my tumor. Cannot recommend that activity highly enough! I can see nothing obsessive about that.
Joanna