Vince's Journey

Yesterday I posted about my appontment with Dr. Leming and the results of the latest CT scans. The scans showed that there while the masses in my chest were gone, therer were still signs of masses in my abdomen. Dr. Leming speculated that the masses could simply be scar tissue left from the malinancies. He said that this happens quite frequently in the larger tumors. I went back and looked at the previous scans and the enlarged nodes in my abdomen were somewhat larger than the nodes in my chest and neck. And at the risk of sounding like George Costanza, there was 'significant shrinkage' in those nodes following the first two cycles of chemo. There was not much additional shrinkage following the 3rd and 4th cycles.

I looked all over the internet to find information to support what Dr. Leming was saying but I obviously did not put the correct words into the search. Julie's sister Jeanne also did some searching and came up with the following...

http://www.lymphoma.org.uk/support/Factfiles/PETadiagnosticimagingtechnique.htm


A relatively common problem where FDG PET scanning is being increasingly used is in those patients who, after a course of chemotherapy, are found to have some reduction in the size of a lymphoma swelling but it does not go away completely. It is then often difficult to be sure whether this contains active lymphoma, which would result in that patient’s relapse and need for further treatment. Frequently, the residual lump simply reflects scar tissue from the disturbed architecture of the original lymph glands, needing no further treatment and which, given time, will slowly shrink back. Clinical experience suggests that FDG PET can, with a high degree of accuracy, determine between residual masses containing viable tumour where further treatment will be required to achieve a cure and those which no longer have active lymphoma within them and where additional and unnecessary side-effects from treatment can be avoided. FDG PET alone is rarely of value and should be used in conjunction with the clinical history, examination and information from blood tests and other scans.

So this obviously is something that happens quite a bit. We're praying that this will be the case with me, as well.

Just thought this might be of interest to all of you!

Peace and Blessings!

Vince