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Scans every 6 months, Stage IIIa
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Scans every 6 months, Stage IIIa

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Scans every 6 months, Stage IIIa

  • Post
    • February 8, 2018 at 2:25 pm
    laulamb
    Participant

      Looking for advice:  Long story short:  Diagnosed Stage IIIa in 2016, did 4 treatments of Yervoy 3mm every three weeks, then did maintenace dosage every 3 months for a year.  I was traveling 4 hours to Dr. Lynn Schuchter at Penn Medicine in Philadelpia for the Yervoy treatments.  After my last maintenace dosage she said I could see my regular oncologist for scans every 6 months for 5 years … and if something shows up on the scans to come back to Penn Medicine.  

      Saw my local oncologist to get setup with scans.  Since I am 44 years old he is recommending just doing CT scan on chest and MRI on pelvis.  He said the full CT/PET scan on chest and pelvis would be putting too much radiation into my body.  He did say if anything would show up on the MRI of the pelvis he would then do the CT/PET scan on the pelvis to look at it closer.

      Any opinions on this plan for scans?

      As always, thanks in advance for any advice.  Everyone is so kind and helpful on this board.  

      Laura 

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        • February 8, 2018 at 4:25 pm
        SABKLYN
        Participant

          Hi Laura,

          Are you asking about the frequency, combination of CT and MRI or the focus of the scans relative to your body?  I was 3A in 2011 and the protocol for me was each 6 months Chest Abdomen, Pelvis CT scans.  IAfter year 2 they reduced it to annual CT they added a brain MRI after the third year.

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