Hi Everyone,
As I have been reading many, many posts it seems there are many people who have false positive PET's after tx. Kevin is supposed to have his in March. That will be almost 5 months after his last chemo and RT.
My question is....does an MRI seem to be a safer test as far as false positives go?
Thanks,
Kathy

MRI's dont show everything the doc needs. MRIs dont do a good job showing bones or malignant tumors. For many of us who have had radiation, the doc should be checking out our jawbones for osteoradionecrosis. A PET scan is much more expensive than a CT scan. Many docs will do CT scans first and if they see something suspicious then they will order a PET. One advantage of the PET scan is showing things in 3D (not sure if CT or MRI is 3D). A PET scan will allow the doctor to see things like living vs dead tissue and abnormalities much more detailed than the other tests. A doctor is able to see things at the cell level so things can be caught very very early with a PET scan. A CT scans usually show tumors better than MRIs do.

My understanding is that the answer to your specific question is YES, MRI's have lower false positives on BOT oral cancer after TX then Petscans.
But don't worry, if the Petscan does light up, the doctors will just do an MRI to see what is really happening.
I seem to recall that the NCC guidelines for BOT cancer indicate MRIs as the standard but I've gotten their technical issues wrong before.
Still, If I were you, I would have Kevin just follow his doctor's advice and get the Petscan. It's not "wrong" just a difference of opinion and I'm not a doctor. He/She has probably had accurate results from petscans, while I did not.
Plus, getting a totally clean Petscan, that no high SUV report, would be really really comforting to you both
Keep the Faith
Charm

PET's are a great tool in detection with the caveat that they do have a fairly high rate of false positives. When having a scan done being prepared that a hotspot could readily be any number of issues not necessarily cancer is crucial. All these scans, MRI, PET, CT all have issues however their only job is to identify an area of concern for biopsy and then staging if cancer is confirmed.

I say go for the PET just prepare yourself accordingly. Good luck!

Eric

Ok...thanks guys and gals!!

Since my surgery and RT they've always done PET-CTs simultaneously, which has in 2 1/2 years seemed to offer all of what my docs want to see.