Which Opinion Do You Choose?

In my case, what they were looking for is metastatic disease.

It's kind of hard to tell for bladder cancer in the bladder and in the kidneys because those are areas that collect the radioactive glucose as it passes through the system and gets filtered from the blood.

I had it done at the local hospital and it was part of our insurance network.

Mike

My understanding is the PET scan is to look for metastatic cancer. I think the research is to see if there is a way of reading the results in the bladder/kidney area. When my husband had a PET scan he was part of the study so Medicare paid for the scan. Julie

Unfortunately, MD Anderson would not take my Dad's insurance and would not let us pay cash for a consultation. I've done some reading about PET scans and it is impossible to tell the difference between scar tissue and malignancies, at least in the prostatic fossa area. Two doctors have told us that using PET scans for detecting bladder cancer is still in the research phase. If this is the case, why do doctors recommend them when bladder cancer is what you are looking for?

Harleygirl,

That's a great question. Figuring out which opinion is the correct one is tough. I'm about to get myself in that situation next week.

My understanding is that MD Anderson uses a team approach. That, I believe may help with oncologist suggesting chemo and surgeon recommending surgery.

I'm not sure how you can get two different opinions on a PET scan though. I would suggest that you get a copy of the report and read it yourselves. It can't be both positive AND negative.


Best of luck!

As a matter of fact, Dad's sister passed away last year at the age of 96 and was mowing her own yard at the age of 90!

Well this is going to seem a bit insensitive i'm sure...but what is the projected life span in your family? Does everyone live to be l00 or more?
Granted your Father is one tough customer...how he came through the first surgery with all the complications i don't know and then a second surgery to correct the first surgery of not taking out the urethra in the first place. Now he's talking of a penectomy which is a really devastating surgery that hardly anyone performs...they do partials and radiation and or some chemo on younger patients if there is an indication of it advancing to the penis...and you have no indication of that from the PET scan or of it going anywhere else.
How about a third opinion from Johns Hopkins or The Cleveland Clinic on line where there is no one thats going to benefit financially from an opinion?
Pat