Question about CT

[mstlyn]

My son Anthony went to see his oncologist today. His hcg was 714.. which only slightly lower than before he started chemo (741)

I asked the oncologist when he would be ordering more scans for my son and he said not until the end of treatment. He says that chemo is already hard on the kidneys and the dye they use for scans is too. He said they can get a good idea what is going on with regular blood work.

Comments?

[mstlyn]

I can tell you that the contrast is tough enough to get rid of a kidney stone, based on recent experience.

You want to limit the scans to as few as possible.He will be having enough of them over the next couple of years, so the radiation exposure they want to limit also.

Blood work is easier on the body, and the markers are a great way to see what's going on. Certainly less expensive too. I'd imagine during treatment sometime later in cycle, they MAY do a chest x-ray to look at the lungs.
It's all good.

Ok thanks Robert. I wasn't sure because from what I see on this board it seems like most people get scans throughout their treatment.
He did tell my son that he wants to keep an eye on his lungs since he has nodules in both upper lobes (keeping in mind the report said they are too small to tell what they are.) so they would have to do a scan to see those.

The chest xray was clear. It was the scan that picked up the nodules in the lungs.