Cervical Cancer
Although on the decline due to increased use of screening tests,
an estimated 12,200 new invasive cervical cancers will be diagnosed
in the US in 2003, accounting for 4,100 cancer deaths.
Early determination of how far the invasive cervical
cancer has spread is key to selecting the most appropriate treatment...and PET
Scanning can help
Diagnosis and Early Detection
Early
cancers of the cervix can generally be easily found by a Pap test:
a painless, simple procedure, which should be done annually in
women over the age of 18. It collects and tests cells from the
cervix to look for evidence of cancer. Survival for patients with
pre-invasive lesions is nearly 100%, with curative treatment possible
through local procedures.
For
patients in whom the cervical cancer has not been found at this
pre-invasive stage, more extensive surgery, radiation therapy,
and chemotherapy may be considered. For invasive cervical cancer,
PET scanning can help…determine the stage of the cancer immediately
after it is found, so that the most appropriate therapy can be
given.
...the PET scan can show where tumor cells are growing,
which helps your doctor determine the best course of treatment...
The
PET scan can accurately detect invasive cervical cancer and see
how far it may have spread.
Treatment Follow-Up and Cancer Recurrenct
Your
doctor will schedule you for routing follow-up visits, depending
on the stage of the cancer. Your doctors may order follow up tests
and procedures to determine if the cancer returns. PET is the
most useful test that you can have when doctors are staging or
re-staging your cancer because it is more accurate than CT
or any other test.
Before
PET, it was extremely difficult to monitor patients to see if
the cervical cancer had spread. Other imaging tests might not
see the cancer as sensitively as PET, which could result in a
delay of further treatment. Imaging with PET to look for recurrence
is critical to find it at its earliest stage.
PET
can also be used to image tumor response to therapy. After surgery
and other treatments, PET is extremely important to monitor to
see if the cancer cells have returned and help determine if treatment
should be re-started.
Find the support you needI
Several organizations provide information and support to patients
and their families, including the following:
The Juliet Trust
National Cervical Cancer Coalition
| 
