Tests after treatment is finished

Deblc · April 2014

After being diagnosed with Stage IIIC BC, I have had a mastectomy with node removal, am currently undergoing adjuvant chemo, and will have radiation afterwards. I asked my MO when I would need to do scans, after chemo or after radiation. She says they don't require a CATscan afterwards, as what they are treating now would be microscopic (as the scans before surgery showed NED apart from the breast and nodes). They only follow up with yearly mammograms. I was surprised. Has anyone here in a similar situation had scans after treatment was done?

fredntan · April 2014

yes dear. this is typical of east coast docs. docs on east coast are far and few betweeen that will do routine scans on you post treatment. they base everything on a study that says it makes no difference when you find mets. the study is old and out of date.

you will have to seek and find oncogloist that will scan you yearly if yo think that s important. I did. and caught my mets early. mets caught early is easier to get to NED .

there is thread on here I made called East coast docs talking about same thing. good luck

SelenaWolf · April 2014

My cancer centre will only do scans if there is a reason to do them, i.e. you have symptoms that need to be checked out. Many centres seem to have this philosophy.

Deblc · April 2014

I never knew that. I live in Jamaica, so wondered if was because we are not up with the latest "first world" treatment protocols. I find this so odd. So if they don't do regular scans, how can you tell if there is a recurrence if you have no symptoms until it's very late ? And how do you know what the symptoms are? All questions I will have to bring up with my oncologist, I guess.

Tests after treatment is finished

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