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Cost of PET scans at the Mayo Clinic? What is this ?

 
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riesesdad
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:34 am    Post subject: Cost of PET scans at the Mayo Clinic? Reply with quote
I'm wondering about the cost and appointment availablity of pet scans in the US, particularily the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN.

My wife's tumor showed Lymphatic and Vascular invasion and we would rest a lot easier if we could know conclusively what is happening in the rest of her body.

We're from Winnipeg Manitoba Canada and would like to travel to Rochester for the PET scan, but need to know the cost and any waiting period.

Thanks
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MuttsMom
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 6:24 pm    Post subject: Re: Cost of PET scans at the Mayo Clinic? Reply with quote
HI,
I had a 5.5 cm tumor and 9 positive lumph nodes out of 16 and they didn't do a PET on me. From what I understand, insurance will not or doesn't like to pay for them without a "good reason" and they are also prone to false positives. I had a CT Scan of my chest, chest x-ray, labwork, the CMP, the one that shows all the enzimes in the liver etc. and I had a bone scan. I was "high risk" because of being Stage III and being "young-just turned 43). That showed them that I had no distant mets but also no other local mets besides the lumph nodes. A PET won't show up cells, they will show up tumors early, but if there are cancer cells floating around, they won't pick them up.

I did get a PET in Dec. of 2002, which was 6 months after chemo and 3 months after radiation. The only reason my insurance paid was because, I think the CT of the chest showed "activity" but was consistant with the scar tissue from the mastectomy BUT and I understand no one want to say anything 100% just incase there is a fluke, but it said the only way to be sure would be with a PET. Anyway, I had the PET and I did show activity where the nodes were removed, but on a scale of 1-5 it was a 3 and my onco told me that we would see activity there. I also lit up on my thyroid, again a 3. Blood work showed that the radiation had damaged my thryoid and now I'm on meds for that.

My PET in 2002 was $800.00 and I'm in Alabama and from what I've heard, the cost can vary several hundred.

If you feel confident in your oncologist and he's done or is going to do the tests that they did on me prior to treatment, I would feel confident that it hadn't spread anywhere else. The bone scan, CTs and labs tell me alot.

Best of luck and keep us posted
Nancy
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