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Does a pet scan show all cancers

A 39-year-old member asked:
Dr. William Singer
Pediatric Neurology 53 years experience
Metabolism: A pet scan is a measure of brain areas metabolism. Brain tumors have a unique metabolic picture and alter the normal metabolic pattern of the affecti... Read More
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Dr. Ryan Polselli
Radiology 17 years experience
A few exceptions: A pet scan is a very good study to detect most types of cancer throughout the body. However, as with most studies, there are a few exceptions. Cancers... Read More
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Dr. Guido Davidzon
Nuclear Medicine 20 years experience
No: Size matters: with current pet systems, the limit of resolution for detecting typical cancers by 18f-fdg pet generally ranges between a 0.4- and 1.0-c... Read More
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A 46-year-old female asked:
Dr. Donald Colantino
Internal Medicine 63 years experience
Bone scan vs pet sca: I would just go ahead with the bone scan as I don't believe authorization by the insurance company will be required. Judging from my experience with... Read More
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Dr. Bennett Machanic
Neurology 47 years experience
Productive : Both can be used successfully in metastatic cancers. PET can visualize in more widespread areas. Bone scan is good old fashioned tool
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
Dr. Holly Maes
Pediatrics 38 years experience
Call insurance!: Call your insurance provider and ask to speak with preapproval department. Explain what has happened and that you are in pain. Most companies will wo... Read More
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A 62-year-old male asked:
Dr. Lewis Hassell
Pathology 41 years experience
PET in cancer: PET scans are used to detect areas of abnormally increased metabolism, while CT scans only detect areas of differing density or lucency to radiation. ... Read More
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A 32-year-old female asked:
Dr. Christian Schultheis
Hematology and Oncology 26 years experience
Possibly: More important is the pathology. We rely on pathology and the immunochemistry. The pet may be helpful but sometimes we do not find a primary. This ... Read More
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A 46-year-old member asked:
Dr. Geoffrey Rutledge
Internal Medicine 39 years experience
PET : Pet scans are used for diagnosis, staging, and restaging of certain kinds of cancers such as lung, colorectal, esophageal, and head and neck cancers, ... Read More
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
A 25-year-old member asked:
Dr. David Cooke
Thoracic Surgery 24 years experience
Adjunctive: Pet scans utilize a special sugar molecule or glucose, and attaches a harmless piece of radioactivity to it (fdg). The FDG is taken up by metabolical... Read More
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
A 61-year-old female asked:
Dr. Michael Dugan
Specializes in Hematology
Maybe: Pet activity correlates with sugar utilization, and increases can be seen in malignancies, but also other inflammatory and infectious conditions.
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A 55-year-old female asked:
Dr. Morton Levitt
A Verified Doctoranswered
Pathology, Anatomic and Clinical 51 years experience
Liver nodules: Multiple small nodules in the liver can be due to a multiplicity of causes, ranging from benign cysts, vascular lesions, infectious foci, or tumors. T... Read More
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A 59-year-old female asked:
Dr. Michael Gabor
Diagnostic Radiology 35 years experience
It depends: If the bronchoscopic biopsy showed a specific benign process that could account for the PET finding, you have an answer. If not, you might need to ha... Read More
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
A 47-year-old member asked:
Dr. Geoffrey Rutledge
Internal Medicine 39 years experience
While : While pet imaging is commonly used for staging and restaging of lymphoma, pet imaging is not in widespread clinical use in the diagnosis or staging of... Read More
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.