What’s the Most Reliable Breast Cancer Recurrence Imaging Test, PET or Ultrasound?
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I һаԁ double mastectomies wіtһ lymph node involvement. Tһе PET ѕһοwеԁ abnormal nodes аחԁ tһе ultrasound…nothing.
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2 Comments on “What’s the Most Reliable Breast Cancer Recurrence Imaging Test, PET or Ultrasound?”
They usually do both together because one test can see things that the other cannot. I don’t think either one is more reliable than the other.
I am sorry that the PET showed a problem. Hopefully further testing will show that it’s not cancer.
Ultrasounds basically take a picture, kind of like a x-ray or a CT scan (ultrasounds take the picture with soundwaves). PET scans basically are a measure of metabolic activity. So, they are two different kinds of tests, and one isn’t necessarily better than the other. The ultrasound will show if nodes are enlarged, the PET scan will show if any areas of the body are showing an abnormal increase in metabolic activity.
What happens in the PET scan is you get injected with glucose attached to a radioactive tracer. Fast dividing and metabolically active cells take up the tracer and “light up” on the PET scan.
PET scans are very sensitive. They also cannot tell what is causing the metabolic activity. While cancer obviously can cause a scan to show activity, so can inflammation, infection, and several other benign processes. In other words, just because the PET shows activity does not necessairly mean there is cancer.
This is just general information. Your oncologist can explain more about what your specific results mean. He/she can explain whether you should be concerned over a recurrence or whether this possibly might be due to something else. (For example, lymph nodes will sometimes show activity when there is an infection.) Best of luck.