MRI and PET CT?

Recently diagnosed with cervical cancer
1

Hiya .

I've been newly diagnosed with stage 1 cervical cancer, I have had an MRI which shows cancer in cervix and neck of womb, lymph nodes appearing normal.... I thought I would be going straight to hysterectomy as thats what they said the next step was but I have now got to have a PET CT scan to check the whole body first.  They told me this is just precaution.

Is this normal procedure? I did the terrible thing of googling it and Google said they only do it if they think it has spread.... Im now terrified i am riddled with cancer.

If they show more than the MRI why don't they just do that in the first place.

I trust my docs completely but during my colposcopy my Dr admitted he hid the truth from me about my cancer until after the biopsy as he thought that was the best thing for me at the time as I was so nervous, I don't blame him for doing that he had my beat interests at heart but now all I think about is are they are still hiding things from me. 

Has anybody else had both scans in the beginning and they be ok xx

 

2

The scans show different things. A PET lights up hot spots around the body where activity is going on which may suggest active cancer in those regions. It only shows up as bright blobs so is no good for showing the outline of the cancer and whether it's invaded other local organs. MRI is much better for that.

So rest assured, you are in safe hands! They are just checking that you are getting the most appropriate treatment and it's all good.

Karen x 

3

It’s totally normal as soon as you are diagnosed with an invasive cancer to have diagnostic imaging done to confirm stage, check for spread etc. I had an mri, ct, pet scan, planning ct within the space of 3 weeks :) x