can a CT PET scan be wrong?

Hello Chlouiluise I cant answer your regarding the ct pet scan but I would ask the GP to refer you to another hospital for example for MRI and second opinion or if not could you go privately?They should really do a biopsy but nowadays they have unfortunately covid excuse for everything.And they saying services going back to normal.

Janet

Apart from being shocked, what is your Haematologist saying?

A CT/PET scan is a very accurate tool and one of the main diagnostic tools for a blood cancer. This would light up any Lymphoma areas and these would then be a target for a biopsy...... could this be a reactive lymph node? as these do wax and wane significantly.

Hi, I have thought about going private but I’m not sure I can afford it at the moment, it’s such a struggle. It seems like my consultant was doing everything she could at first to get to the bottom of it and now that the ENT doctor has turned me down for the biopsy she has said it’s his choice and there’s nothing she can do about it.

My consultant is now saying it’s not swollen but she can only feel it because I am slim. But my thoughts are that if thy was the case why can I only feel it and see it on one side and not both as we have glands on both sides of our neck. If she could only feel it because I am slim then why was she so convinced it was a lymphoma and why do all the relevant tests so far? 

It is very confusing, but your consultant did the tests has to been seen as positive, lots of folks will never get tested and are left with no answers. 

What a consultant is looking for/feeling will be completely different from what you/me will feel and understand.

Have you another appointment to be reviewed in the future?

It would have been measured during the PET, so regardless of your consultant's opinion, there is an objective record of its size.

A PET is extremely accurate.  One option might be having the scan read by a lymphoma specialist (not all haematologists are lymphoma specialists).  Second opinions are common and they have the benefit of sparing you further tests unless those are truly necessary.

The PET/CT are usually very accurate when combined. The CT scan measures the size of organs/lymph nodes but cannot say why it is enlarged, but the PET scan can tell if it is diseased or inflamed. Occasionally I believe that nodes can be inflamed rather than have disease, and this can be difficult for a PET scan, but if it has come back as negative, then that is a good thing I would have thought - as it is neither diseased nor inflamed.......just enlarged.

There may be many reasons why lymph nodes are enlarged, its finding out why they are fighting infection.