The Colon Club

So today my mom had a PET to see if a suspicious enlarged (2cm) internal iliac node “lit up.” Guess what. It didn’t. And now they are saying that it might not be a node at all but her OVARY.

And then they are saying that’s an abnormal size for an ovary in a postmenopausal woman so NOW they want to involve a oncology gynecologist to do an ultrasound to see if it’s ovarian cancer!

What is going on.

So questions:

1. If this this is cancerous, why didn’t it light up too? Are PET scans specific to specific cancers?

2. How are they quick to determine it isn’t a spread from the colon cancer vs a new cancer?

3. Anyone have any experience with this?

The “good news” is that this mystery aside, the oncologist said she considers her to be Stage 3 (still said there was still other internal iliac node involvement in addition to this mystery mass, which was news to us) but she said that she feels she can beat this with an aggressive regime of neoadjuvant chemo, then chemo/rad, then surgery.

So not sure how to feel about the mystery mass but overall grateful for the hope of beating this.

I think it' good news. My sister, who is a cancer survivor, lymphoma. She, on one of her follow up ct scan visits, it too was noted that her ovary was enlarged and she too was post menopausal. After a work up to investigate, it was nothing. Her ovary was just simply enlarged and that was that. She has been cancer free for over 25 years now and still has her enlarged ovary, which is of no concern!

I'm not 100% sure, but I think any kind of cancer, where ever it is in your body , will light up on a pet scan. I would think the ovary would of lit up.

Hope in the end, it's all good news for you also.

Debbie

Thank you Debbie.

Ultrasound today revealed it was her ovary! She spoke to a oncology gyno and he said that while slightly enlarged, he did not believe it looked worrisome. He drew her CA-125 and said we can check it again in 4-6 weeks but it is likely just the way her ovary is.

Also, because this turned out to be an ovary and not an enlarged internal iliac node, we are left wondering if she has any iliac involvement at all! None of the records we have indicate she does (just that this 2cm mass was in the internal iliac region and if it turned out to be a lymph node then that wouldn’t have been good.) So we are trying to get that clarified. But it’s a good day!