Lung cancer Stage 4, bone met. Tarceva now. PET/CT or CT+bone scan for followup - 1244246

andy99
Posts:2

Hello,

My mom is adenocarcinoma stage 4 and bone met. treat by tarceva now.

Now she has scan by PET/CT Scan every 3 month but I wonder should we scan by PET/CT scan every 3 month. Is it more often? and it is very expensive.

or should we follow up by only CT Scan chest + bone scan is enough.

I know PET/CT is help us to find where is new met and cover all body. (include head) it is good. but it is only expensive. and PET/CT we can see SUV progression also. Is SUV important?

CT Scan can do only one area and bone scan only see bone. it is not cover if there are new met may be it is too late.

If we have many met all body should we use PET/CT scan 1 time to see it. it is better than CT Scan chest and bone scan again many time?

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Reply # - July 9, 2012, 09:16 AM

catdander
Posts:

Hi Andy, This is a very common question with a lot written about it already. In fact the link below is to a blog post on the subject. The consensus at least today is to follow with a CT every 3 months. I think the blog post explains everything if not, there are links at the bottom of the post for more reading.

I hope your mom is ok,
Janine

Reply # - July 9, 2012, 06:58 PM

Dr West
Posts: 4735

The link appears to be missing from Janine's post, but here's the link she was probably intending to provide:

http://cancergrace.org/cancer-101/2010/09/16/cancer-101-faq-assessment-…

A key issue is that if the cancer is spread to other places, there isn't a clear value in finding it a little earlier, while it is asymptomatic, vs. finding it a short while later, when it leads to symptoms that trigger a directed scan. If it's metastatic, there isn't a window in which it's far better to find it earlier vs. later. If it's metastatic and asymptomatic, there isn't a clear urgency to treating it. And you don't miss opportunities to treat it more effectively than if you were to detect it later.

-Dr. West

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