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PLEASE HELP: PET has gone dark but still CT abnormalities
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PLEASE HELP: PET has gone dark but still CT abnormalities

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › PLEASE HELP: PET has gone dark but still CT abnormalities

  • Post
    • April 17, 2018 at 8:59 pm
    Spl25
    Participant

      I have 2 1-2cm lesions on the spleen that no longer light up on PET, but which show up on CT. Has anyone had a similar situation where the mets go active again? We are deciding what to do with continuing treatment, so this feels important.

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        • April 18, 2018 at 4:12 am
        Spl25
        Participant

          so are people just not going to answer anon posts anymore?

          • April 18, 2018 at 4:26 am
          jennunicorn
          Participant

            I will say that there is a good chance the lesions are now dead. Typically if tumors were lighting up on PET before and stop lighting up but are still there on CT, it means they are now dead tumors, which is a good sign. I have not heard of dead tumors becoming active again, not sure scientifically/biologically how that works. Sometimes when it's operable and that's the only known area of disease the tumor(s) will get surgically removed. When I was at a stale point, I had been on treatment for a year and everything except one lymph node was taken care of with treatment, we removed that lymph node surgically and I stopped infusions. Have been NED since then. 

            I am sure your oncologist will have ideas of what they think is a good next step for you.

            • April 18, 2018 at 1:49 pm
            JuTMSY4
            Participant

              I can only offer my experience, but my bone lesions and a few other spots showed up on my CT scans since day 1 of my Stage 4 dx (they're still noted, but noted as "probably" dead/treated).  However, there were no new lesions for a significant period of time from when we started treatment to when we stopped and then several months after.  I only recently had a (new) lesion appear in a completely different area.  

              My guess is that your doc will probably huddle up with some others for experience in determining if/when to stop treatment based on your scans.  However, I think the concern is more focused on new lesions rather than "reactiviating" existing ones.  

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