rose
05-11-2004, 03:01 PM
I have 3 brain mets that are very small and at first, the neurologist was not even convinced they were mets and suggested an MRspectroscopy. This is an MR that measures a specific chemical that is put out in higher quantity than normal tissue. It is very specialized and if appropriate needs to be done in a place where they do a lot of them becuase the results can be difficult.
I was told my lesions were too small for this test to be accurate. So if you have a negative MRI, even if you had hidden lesions they must be pretty small and I wonder if spectroscopy would be the right thing?
PET scanning for the brain in breast cancer is not terribly reliable either. But UCLA has developed a new tracer specifically for breast cancer brain mets that is supposed to be more sensitive.
You might consider another opinion by another neurologist or a wait and see approach with a rescan in 6-8 weeks.
Good luck.
I was told my lesions were too small for this test to be accurate. So if you have a negative MRI, even if you had hidden lesions they must be pretty small and I wonder if spectroscopy would be the right thing?
PET scanning for the brain in breast cancer is not terribly reliable either. But UCLA has developed a new tracer specifically for breast cancer brain mets that is supposed to be more sensitive.
You might consider another opinion by another neurologist or a wait and see approach with a rescan in 6-8 weeks.
Good luck.