@A MyBCTeam Member its not the doctors, its the insurance companies that won't pay for PET scans. Doctors will write the order, submit for approval and they turn it down.

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A MyBCTea...

It would be almost unheard of to order a full body CT scan - that would be a lot of radiation and a lot of time for someone to hold perfectly still. There are extremely different sets of physics at work between a CT and a PET scan. Also, extremeities are very complex with a lot of different types of soft tissue (muscle, tendons, ligaments, vessels, ) - much better suited for MR. A PET scan (and nuclear medicine) will show cancer metabolism much better than anatomy because of the contrast which is used. Very active cancer cells will absorb the contrast and show up as bright spots on a PET scan. PET can do the full body at exactly the same time. It is literally a medical physics problem. Two different technologies, two different purposes. There IS a new type of blood test called a Liquid Biopsy. Read about it on the Cleveland Clinic website - great explanation there. There is a company called Natera which can compare the DNA circulating in your blood with the DNA of a removed or biopsied tumor. It will not catch a NEW tumor/DNA, however. I requested a liquid biopsy - the huge catch is that insurance probably will not cover it. That said, if your insurance is denied, supposedly Natera will charge you $0 - I went ahead with this, but am very skeptical of this claim of $0 fee.

IMO PET scans are the best. They show active and mildly active cancer cells. I had one and then was sent a Bill that I will never pay in my life. For some reason they gave me the scan before approval or disapproval and guess what? I am not paying.

Sheila this post is not in relation to anything I am going through, its for all of us to think about and question.
I said before here months ago for any woman who is scared and can't get a scan just lie. Tell their doctor they are having pain somewhere, force that scan.

Hi Kelly, nice to see you. I totally agree more needs to be done once given a Breast cancer diagnose. Preventative care. Insurance companies need to step up and agree to pay more.