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I, too, had nodules in my lung on a CT angio. If they are less than 4 mm or so they cannot be picked up on a PET (the resolution isn't high enough).Thus, the resolution of the CT is higher than that of the PET and a PET usually cannot be used to determine if the nodules are cancer, infection, etc when the nodules are only that size.
A PET/CT (a study which simultaneously performs a PET and a CT is usually only available at some teaching hospitals and very well equipped cancer centers) can show where the PET lights up in three dimensions so they could tell if it was outside the thoracic cage (residual breast or axilla) or within(lungs).
Many times nodules show up on CTs (my pulmonologist who has no diseases told me they showed up on his)--the technology is so specific it picks up things not causing any problems. A protocol was worked up for lung cancer patients with such nodules and is followed in breast cancer patients as well:
repeat the study in 3 months--if they are larger they are likely cancer and the treatment is not working, if they are smaller they are cancer and the treatment is working, if they are unchanged they are likely not cancer. A warning, if they are really small, the cuts taken by the CT may not be taken in the exact same location each time, so seeing more or less of them (or not at all) may not mean they are not there, just located between the cuts this time. There is no magic to repeating the study at 3 months--mine was repeated in 2.3 months (as pulmonary clinic was not meeting around the holidays) and my nodules were unchanged.
Hope this helps!
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