Pet Scans

I had a lobe of my lung removed in 2002. Last spring a reoccurrence involving the lymph nodes. Radiation and chemo followed thru December - results were good - there appeared to be no evidence of a lung mass left. I have been seeing a specialist monthly. They do a monthly chest ray. I have only had once CT scan this year and that was because I felt serious pain in the chest area. There were no problems; the pain has since gone away. What concerns me is that my current physician, a lung specialist, does not believe in PET Scans. He claims the area treated with radiation will probably appear as a problem. He doesn't appear to have any faith in the PET Scans. Does anyone out there have any comments on this?

10282002 - My oncologist has had me do 5 or 6 PET Scans based on my CEA levels rising. Nothing showed up until the last one when I was given a shot of insulin to lower my blood sugar to 125. The PET Center wants blood sugar to be less than 200 but with my CEA rising and nothing showing up on PET Scans, my oncologist thought my blood sugar levels (once at 140 and 2 times at 160) were causing resolution problems. I guess that was the problem because once I got it down to 125, lymph node involvement showed up. You say your doctor is a pulmonologist - is there a oncologist you can see regularly? My pulmonologist believes in PET Scans too but I only see him every 4 months - I see the oncologist monthly. I was interested in what you said because I, too, had a lobe removed and a wedge resection in 2001, then the recurrence in the lymph node. My oncologist doesn't want to do radiation because of the location - behind the diaphragm and the proximity to the stomach. Do you recall what type of chemo drugs you were on? Do they keep track of your CEA levels? How did you find out you had lymph node involvement. dotdot

My oncologist #1 must not have believed in them either. He wouldn't authorize one, dispite not being able to find a tumor. All he would do is give me chemo and wait until I got sick again. Oncologist #2 at MD Anderson Cancer immediately ran a PET/CT scan and found what was probably the original tumor, all shrunk down. Who knows what size it was originally. This nodule is soft and didn't show on Xray, CT, nuclear test (don't know name), etc. I can't figure #1's attitude, he acted like he would have to pay for the PET scan out of his pocket. If he had ordered one I would have probably been able to get radiation along with the chemo. I guess I must be sort of a techie, because I think the combo PET/CT scan is great. The doctor has great control of the views and manipulate both images together.

Feel like an idiot, but what are the CEA levels? My husband has small cell lung cancer and has blood tests constantly. I don't anything called "CEA".