are ct scans reliable?

I had a tah/bso last Dec. for cervical cancer that spread to 5 lymph nodes. Finished 6 cycles of carbo/taxol in May and 28 cycles of imrt radiation, a lump in my vagina was discovered and three biopies were taken that were negative and the last one pathologist are not sure, a second opinion is being done at USC and I will know the results tomorrow. I have a ct scan approx. every two months that have never showed any tumors, Im upset that this was never found on a ct scan, can I trust them now? In any case I would appreciate your prayers for the results tomorrow..thank you!

Cat scans have always been reliable for me.
I also know from my own personal experience that one cat scan can be perfectly normal and within 2 to 3 months things can grow and the cat scan can be abnormal.
I hope you get all good results tomorrow.
Rosalie

ct scans have been reliable for me too...i've been having them pretty regularly for over 4 years...i had one abnormal scan that they thought showed an enlarged lymph node that after a second look, ended up being scar tissue...
i have had one abnormal paps too, in june...i had another done in september, and it was fine...i think our bodies are constantly changing and like rosalie said, one month everything is fine and the next, you can never be sure what they'll find...
i've been through all that stress that you're going through now and continue to deal with it everytime i go in for a check up...i pray that all turns out well for you tomorrow...it has for me, even when we throught all was bleak...
take care

Hi Roxanne,

I haven't really got an answer for your CT question, but i'll be saying a prayer for you that all turns out well for you tomorrow.

Geraldine

Hi ((Roxanne))
My gyn/onc advised that while CTscans may not always detect very minute cell changes they can show quite tiny tumors, and thus are a good tool for monitoring. I will be keeping you in prayer.
s and blessings, peggiesue

I hope everyhting turns out well for you! It's a scary thought that things can change & grow within 2-3 months & show up as abnormal on ct scans like someone posted! I was diagnosed in August & most probably will have my surgery in November! I'm really scared that things may be worse by then than the initiall diagnosis! Good luck & God bless you.

No test is perfect unfortunately.

When you're dealing with something microscopic or less than a centimeter or two (depending on the type of CT machine- some are more sensitive than others) you may not always see something although it is there.

For example, A CT scan basically takes xray pictures in slices and reconstructs a 3D picture by putting all the slices together. Think of it like a loaf of bread cut up into slices. If you take every other slice out and put the rest of the slices together, you still get a loaf of bread but missing some slices. In one of those slices you took out there may have been a raisin, but you don't see it in the new loaf of bread because that slice is gone. Same thing with CT scans- each slice is at a certain interval- say every 6 centimeters- so there may be something between the 2 pictures or slices that gets missed because a picture wasn't taken here. And as luck may have it, sometimes that little raisin is in the spot where it happened that the computer doesn't take a picture.

All and all I think it's a great test for a lot of people. But it shouldn't be used in and of itself- CT coupled with good physical exams will go a long way in picking up something earlier rather than later.

When I was first diagnosed with cervical cancer, my gyn/onc ordered a PET/CT scan to see where the cancer was. The PET scan I believe uses a type of glucose to look for the metabolic activity of cancer and the CT looks at the anatomy. You can Google PET scan to get more exact info. One machine does both tests so the films from each line up exactly. From what I understand it can be a really good tool for looking at cancer.
My test took about a half hour- the CT part was short and the PET part took up the bulk of the time in the scan.
I'm not sure how widepread the availablilty of the machines is, I think it is fairly new technology but it maybe something to keep in mind or ask your doctor about. Best wishes.

PET scans have been around for a while- they were mostly used in the beginning for brain tumors/brain studies.

Piper is right. What they use in a PET scan is radioactive glucose. The glucose gets taken up by cells that are highly active- cancer cells being one of those groups. Then a CT is done and areas which are high in radioactivity mean this is where the glucose went to, and they help find suspicious areas/cancer.

And PET scans do take a while. It takes a while for the glucose they inject to get into your system and then you're on the table forever it seems getting pictures taken because they have to go a little slower. But some newer machines do incorporate a CT scan so it makes it easier to compare to previous CTs.

I will be receiving PET scans for my follow-up for endometrial cancer. Although some argue that they are probably better for ovarian cancer because it's "faster" growing and not so for endometrial "slower." I think, why not... it incorporates 2 tests into one so maybe that will be more useful- the glucose part and the CT part.

It is a good question to ask your doc though about PET scan as another modality.