PET scan during treatment

[Guest guest]

My husband is halfway through Bendamustine/Rituximab

treatment and his doctor wants to do a PET scan to assess

the effect of therapy on his lymph nodes, and another PET

after treatment is completed. Many lymph nodes have shrunk

away while others are still palpable. He had both PET and

CT before treatment.

I have looked over the recently posted articles on scans and

it seems as if there are questions about the usefulness of

PET scans for CLL and whether PET or CAT scans should be

done at this point.

Here's one web page I found about PET and different types of

lymphoma. http://www.lymphomation.org/tests-PET.htm It

gathers various sources of info to say that there is no

standard protocol and " interim therapy PET is

investigational, " with " minimal information " for indolent

lymphoma. It also mentions that although PET scans are not

that dangerous due to a fairly low dose of short-lived

radiation, there is a chance of false positives (and false

negatives for some indolent lymphomas).

Is it really worthwhile to do at this stage of treatment and

could the results possibly modify the treatment? We have a

call into to the dr.

Judy C.

[Guest guest]

Every situation is different, and there is much debate about

when to scan and PET vs. CT. One issue would be if the

lymph nodes are not responding on exam, it would be worth

doing a PET scan.

Rick Furman, MD

Judith Citrin wrote:

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