Follow Up PET CT Scans Deliver Value for Lung Cancer Patients

Posted by petctlascolinas on May 24th, 2015

Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in the United States. With an estimated 224,000 new cases reported each year, this disease represents about 13 percent of all cancer diagnoses in America each year. While early intervention and aggressive continued care can increase the chances of surviving this disease, recurrence and failure to eradicate it often complicate matters. New research is showing that additional post-treatment PET/CT scans can provide valuable insights that may help doctors make life-saving alterations in their course of treatment.

The retrospective study focused on a total of 1,171 patients who had biopsy-proven lung cancer. These patients also had positron emission tomography with a radioactive tracer. While this diagnostic procedure is commonly used during treatment of lung cancer, the typical protocol calls for not repeating scans after roughly three times. Researchers, however, found that a fourth scan taken approximately 31.4 months after initial treatment can lead to better insights about recurrence and metastasis. Of those involved in the study, the fourth scan resulted in a new treatment protocol for 20.4 percent while treatment was changed for 5.6 percent of the cases.

While the value has already been noted of using PET/CT scans during lung cancer treatment, additional rounds of this testing procedure have not been a standard of care. Researchers, however, say fourth and subsequent studies can prove extremely helpful for ensuring patients receive the best treatment protocol possible. Their attention is now turning to conducting similar studies on the value of long-term PET/CT scanning in regard to other cancers.

People who have been treated with lung cancer should discuss their treatment options directly with a qualified health care provider. PET/CT scans will likely be indicated as treatment progresses. The use of fourth and other follow up scans is a decision to be made between patients and their doctors.

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PET / CT of Las Colinas was developed with both patients and physicians in mind and our services have been used for various types of disease; primarily in detecting, staging and monitoring cancer, but also in heart disease and brain disorders.