Diagnosing Cancer...
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in women. AP Online recently reported the top ten causes of death in women compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics; 256,844 women die annually from cancer in the United States, beaten only by heart disease which claims 374, 849 womens' lives each year.Cancer is probably one of the scariest words you will ever hear, when it's you, your family member, or friend who has received a cancer diagnosis. A suspected diagnosis of cancer requires further diagnostic imaging procedures whose "purpose," according to Barry Tepperman, MD MBA, "is to identify how extensive the cancer is in the region of the known tumor, and to be able to identify other sites involved. Selection of the correct treatment depends on accurate depiction of the extent of disease."
Unless neurological involvement is suspected, a CT scan is the first diagnostic imaging procedure your physician will order. MRI provides excellent resolution of the details of nervous system structures but shows no detail of bone structure and it is usually used to clear up issues which remain unclear after CT scan. Nuclear medicine scans, particularly bone scans are invaluable in assessing possible metastatic involvement and depending on your particular tumor may or may not be used.
CT scans, MRIs, and nuclear medicine scans are diagnostic procedures and are not conclusive evidence of malignant cancer. Only a biopsy and a pathologists report can give you a definitive diagnosis of cancer. The type of surgery and/or biopsy will be dependent on the location of the possible type of cancer diagnosis you may be hearing.
