Scan Differences

Different doctors like different scans.  There really is no best.  I've included a link that gives some basic info about the plusses and minuses of each.  CT probably gives the best detail.  PET assesses metabolically active areas which may include cancer, arthritis, and other inflammation.  MRI is probably the best for the brain.  PET/CT uses a less detailed CT scan combined/overlayed with a PET scan.  This allows the doc to rule out metabolically active areas such as arthritis because the can directly compare the two areas.  Some doctors think PET scans give too many false positive results and you spend all your time chasing ghosts.  The best thing is to talk to your doctor about this and ask why he likes a particular scan over another.

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/services/pet_scan/hic_pet_scan.aspx

Best wishes,

Janner

Different doctors like different scans.  There really is no best.  I've included a link that gives some basic info about the plusses and minuses of each.  CT probably gives the best detail.  PET assesses metabolically active areas which may include cancer, arthritis, and other inflammation.  MRI is probably the best for the brain.  PET/CT uses a less detailed CT scan combined/overlayed with a PET scan.  This allows the doc to rule out metabolically active areas such as arthritis because the can directly compare the two areas.  Some doctors think PET scans give too many false positive results and you spend all your time chasing ghosts.  The best thing is to talk to your doctor about this and ask why he likes a particular scan over another.

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/services/pet_scan/hic_pet_scan.aspx

Best wishes,

Janner

Hi Laurie,

For melanoma patients PET scan is routinely assigned  as the most precise scan for confirming advanced melanoma and in my opinion is that it is the preferred choice of diagnostics for oncologists in the US.I have a consultation coming in Dana Farber Harvard Institute in Boston in few days and they requested the discs with all my PET's up to date-actually today my husband had to drive to get them from Bangor,ME where the tests were performed.For the last one year I had only one CAT but 2 PETS and third one  coming soon.They inject you with sugar based radioactive tracer and then scan you;the signals emitted from the tracer are then converted into a  computer imaging that lights up the areas with  increased metabolic activity-if any, including the lymph nodes.It is up to the doctors to investigate if it is melanoma,but you have to agree if you have history of melanoma, they give you a really good clue about possible distant spread.The down side is PET do not detect tumours smaller than 6 mm-and that's what happened with me.I've had a recurrence confirmed due to a routine pap smear 2 weeks after a clear PET scan-that wasn't picked up because it  was 1.5-2mm. Talk about emotional roller coaster!

PETs are quite expensive in the range of $6000 in the US and we still end up paying about 15% after the medical insurance company had stepped in.

Best regards,

Teodora

Hi Laurie,

For melanoma patients PET scan is routinely assigned  as the most precise scan for confirming advanced melanoma and in my opinion is that it is the preferred choice of diagnostics for oncologists in the US.I have a consultation coming in Dana Farber Harvard Institute in Boston in few days and they requested the discs with all my PET's up to date-actually today my husband had to drive to get them from Bangor,ME where the tests were performed.For the last one year I had only one CAT but 2 PETS and third one  coming soon.They inject you with sugar based radioactive tracer and then scan you;the signals emitted from the tracer are then converted into a  computer imaging that lights up the areas with  increased metabolic activity-if any, including the lymph nodes.It is up to the doctors to investigate if it is melanoma,but you have to agree if you have history of melanoma, they give you a really good clue about possible distant spread.The down side is PET do not detect tumours smaller than 6 mm-and that's what happened with me.I've had a recurrence confirmed due to a routine pap smear 2 weeks after a clear PET scan-that wasn't picked up because it  was 1.5-2mm. Talk about emotional roller coaster!

PETs are quite expensive in the range of $6000 in the US and we still end up paying about 15% after the medical insurance company had stepped in.

Best regards,

Teodora

This is what NIH told us; the CTSCAN is more detailed and clear but the PETSCAN is needed to areas like the bowel because the CTSCAN does not get a clear picture of it because the movement, plus it gets the rest of the body if there is uptake. The CTSCAN picked up an intusseption on my husband's bowel but it did not pick up actual tumors, the PET confirmed there were tumors and that was what caused the intusseption. Then he had the surgery to remove part of his small bowel. Both are important it's just where they are focusing. He had both this last visit a CTSCAN and PET.

Good luck!

Rebecca

This is what NIH told us; the CTSCAN is more detailed and clear but the PETSCAN is needed to areas like the bowel because the CTSCAN does not get a clear picture of it because the movement, plus it gets the rest of the body if there is uptake. The CTSCAN picked up an intusseption on my husband's bowel but it did not pick up actual tumors, the PET confirmed there were tumors and that was what caused the intusseption. Then he had the surgery to remove part of his small bowel. Both are important it's just where they are focusing. He had both this last visit a CTSCAN and PET.

Good luck!

Rebecca