I have not posted in a while because all has been going okay. My Dad, who is now 86, had his bladder/prostate removed in 2007 at the age of 80. There were complications and he has never been himself since the surgery, but was "soldiering on".
Yesterday, he got a call from the nurse at his oncologist's office regarding a CT scan on his pelvis and abdomen he had had the previous week. It was the routine yearly scan that is recommended. She tells Dad, "There is a mass in your lower quadrant. The cancer is back."!! Wow! First of all, to just call someone on the phone and deliver that kind of news seems unacceptable to me and the fact that the nurse called and not the doctor is puzzling. Also, there was no suggestion to make an appointment to follow-up and determine definitively what exactly this "mass" is.
Can a radiologist look at a film and definitively determine that a "mass" is indeed cancer and what kind of cancer it is? Seems to me that a biopsy would be necessary to get this information and make a firm diagnosis.
It has been 5.5 years since Dad's surgery. He never had to have chemo and says he won't have it now. He has been suffering with the effects of a UTI and a head cold this past two weeks, so he is not feeling his best, for sure. After recently having a pacemaker implanted and having a big complication with that (one lead migrated and poked through the heart wall!) and finding out he has blood clots in his lungs and leg and heart and being put on Coumadin, he has had about all he can take.
So, again, is it possible to diagnose cancer from a CT scan?