Hi: I know what the differences of the scans are. My question was would
(1) one PET Scan take the place of a (CT Scan lung - CT Scan Abdomen & Rib
Xray). The tumor in my rt. lung is 2 cm so you could see that for sure. It
just seems if the insurance co. is going to pay for the other 3 tests which
they will - wouldn't paying for 1 PET Scan make more sense if it's feasible.
The real plus of that would be you could see if there were any new tumors
under the size of 2 cm. and maybe see where my rib pain is coming from. The
last bone scan I had last month didn't show anything - but the pain is
coming from somewhere....sometimes I begin to think I'm crazy.
Thanks for getting back to me.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alvin Larson [SMTP:arl@swcp.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 1999 7:32 PM
> To: mol-cancer@lists.meds.com
> Subject: Re: [MOL] Pet Scan
>
> Argila, June wrote:
> >
> > Hi Anyone: I have a question. I have to set up an appt. for a CT Scan
> of
> > Lung, CT Scan of Abdomen and Xray of ribs. If I were to have a Pet Scan
> -
> > would that test cover the other three (3) tests? Anyone?
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> The PET scan is done by injecting radio-active glucose into
> a vein and waiting for it the collect in the tumors (tumors
> like glucose). The radio-active source produces positrons,
> which are captured very near the tumor, the positrons produce
> gamma rays which leave the body and are collected by a group
> of detectors. Information from the detectors is processed by
> a computer to produce an image.
>
> The PET scan has about a 5 times better resolution than
> CT scans and X-rays, which cannot see tumors less than
> 1-cm in size. Not only does the PET scan see much
> smaller tumors than CT scans, it can cover the whole
> body to see metastasis that may be in the bones, brain, or
> whatever. The PET is very good for staging the disease and
> can be used to follow the progression. It is rather expensive
> so works best with another marker, such as a blood antigen test,
> if the tumor is too small to see on a CT scan.
>
> The PET is a functional process while the CT scan is a direct
> image process so they work well together if the tumor is big
> enough to see on a CT scan.
>
> Hope this helps......Al Larson
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