Question??Pet scan or Bone scan

Adriana Mangus · 02-10-2010, 10:12 PM

Would a Pet scan revealed bone mets? I saw the onc yesterday, and asked him for a bone scan. Last one I had was about 2 1/2 years ago.

He said that since I just had the pet scan done (about 8 weeks) there was no need for me to have a bone scan.

He mentioned that the pet would have showed whether bone mets is ocurring. He also said that Pet scans are better than Bone scans at detecting any mets in the body, except the whole brain, of course.

True? (Just want it to have it done, not a particular reason, just because)

Then... why in the past did I get the bone scans in the first place?

Thank you Ladies,

Much Love to all of you,

Adriana

Jackie07 · 02-10-2010, 10:37 PM

Adriana,

I found this link that includes both PET scan and bone scan.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/003827.htm

My understanding is that PET detects things that are growing by the gluecose concentration (or something like that) revealed on the scan. So any cancer cell clusters that are active in the body will be detected. According to your doctor, a PET scan covers the bone as well.

You might have to give him some good reason - such as certain aches and pains - to convince him.

Henny · 02-11-2010, 08:45 AM

Adriana,
In general the bone scan is better for blastic bone lesions (healing ones) and the PET is better for lytic lesions (new ones). The differences aren't great between the two so I would feel comfortable with either one-tho a bone scan is much less expensive if that's an issue.
If you really want to pull out the stops ask about the PET bone scan with sodium-fluoride instead of the FDG (sugar). The sodium fluoride scans seem to be the best but aren't available in many places-I think Stanford is doing a study on all 3 kinds of bone scans. I know they do quite a few sodium-flouride PET bone scans in Seattle too

Good luck!

Henny

tricia keegan · 02-12-2010, 06:59 AM

Adriana, I personally think the bone scan more stressful as it can show even old injuries or arthritis etc and there are many false positives as happened to me recently.
I think they don't do the pet/ct as often because it's far more expensive but in my case my bone scan was followed up with this and was negative. My onc said the pet can show cancer at the molecular level so would be more accurate. I also had two MRI's, one inconclusive and one negative.
I hope this helps a little

Karen Wheel · 02-13-2010, 11:31 AM

I'm now nervous too - as I have not had a PET (thank you ladies for the info above as I was wondering if this was a test I might have had here in Italy and just not known the name here as its all in Italian!) ... ;-0 However, I am going to ask my doctors here when I go for my Herceptin (Monday) to see what the deal is on the PET. I do have one spot on the back of my head (behind the ear) and a rib (below where I had surgery) that are sore - all the time... and its been a year since surgery. UGH! So, I'm a bit nervous. Had a TAC (MRI think they call it in the US) with contrast and they said I'm fine .... that was October... and I'm due for more exams this month (every 3 months) they say for the first year - and they only started this "follow up" scans 3 months ago... UGH!
So, Thanks for the info - I'll use it this week.
Karen
Karen

tricia keegan · 02-13-2010, 05:33 PM

Karen, it's great you're getting follow up scans as my onc only does them when there's a problem. I'm not sure about the head area, but if the MRI was negative for the body I think it's fairly accurate.
Good luck at your appt and hope this is nothing serious and the pain eases soon

Karen Wheel · 02-14-2010, 02:42 AM

Yes, I am lucky - not only have I spent less than 100 euros for ALL of my year of therapy (surgery, chemo, all tests and exams, radiation, and Herceptin)- but they do follow up scans (entire body) checking lungs and organs - and doing MRI for the torso and head - every 3 months for the first year after finding cancer (my 3 month checks started 3 months ago). Even when I was stage 1.... so, guess I am "fortunata"!

However, I am worried about these sore spots - my mom said last night (on SKYPE love that!) that my rib could be "out" and that could cause constant pain, but I have not found a chiropractor here in Sardegna (I'm sure there must be one!) but .... if a rib is out, I can't get it back in without one! UGH!

So, we'll see what the doctors say tomorrow. Thanks for the answer. Karen

VirginiaGirl · 02-20-2010, 05:55 AM

Adriana,
My mets are almost always all bone (vertebrae and pelvis). I had one or maybe 2 bone scans initially, but my onc and I both felt we got much better information from a PET/CT as the bone scans didn't reveal the lytic lesions and left a pretty different impression of what was going on. MRIs of my spine have been good for assessing any damage to the bone and any risk of fracture, narrowing of nerve canals, etc. whatever the cause. We did a baseline MRI of my spine two years (?) ago, and then I had them done again 6 months later when I thought I might do radiation to a few spots on my spine (didn't do that as my onc wanted more systemic treatment). So basically, we do a PET/CT every 4 months or so and feel that provides the best info, and I'm fine with that as it is also the easiest (and quietest!) scan.
Good luck!

Joan M · 02-20-2010, 02:48 PM

Adriana,

A PET scan will show bone mets better than a bone scan, but since a bone scan is considerably cheaper, onc often start with that. If a bone scan shows something questionable, a PET may be able to verify it depending on the size as PETs are good for nodules at least 1 cm as they are less accurate when a lesion is smaller than that.

Best,

Joan