Hello All
Sucow asked """What Is A Scan?""" and I felt my reply would be more acessible in this section.
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After a biopsy is done, a pathologist :geek: examines the tissue under a microscope to check for cancer cells.

If the pathologist finds oral cancer, the patient's doctor needs to know the stage, or extent, of the disease in order to plan the best treatment. Staging tests and exams help the doctor find out whether the cancer has spread and what parts of the body are affected.

Staging generally includes dental x-rays and x-rays of the head and chest. The doctor may also want the patient to have a CAT (or CT) scan. A CAT scan is a series of x-rays put together by a computer to form detailed pictures of areas inside the body. The CAT (computerized axial tomography) scan can reveal some soft-tissue and other structures that cannot even be seen in conventional X-rays. CAT scanning is painless.

The CAT Scan (Computerized axial tomography) can be used to scan any area of the body, but most commonly the trunk or brain. This procedure allows a succession of 1 cm thickness images through the area of investigation. The """cuts""" (tomograms) for the CAT scan are usually made 5 or 10 mm apart. The CAT machine rotates 180 degrees around the patient's body; hence, the term """axial.""" The machine sends out a thin X-ray beam at 160 different points. Crystals positioned at the opposite points of the beam pick up and record the absorption rates of the varying thicknesses of tissue and bone. The data are then relayed to a computer that turns the information into a 2-dimensional cross-sectional image.

Sometimes the doctor asks for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), a procedure in which pictures of areas inside the body are created using a magnet linked to a computer.

Best wishes

Vinod :coffee:

Hello Doctor,
Thank you for your post on the scan.
I am not sure which scan he had but he said it was VERY noisy and made him jump,then he got told off by the nurse for moving!
He gets his results in 2 days so fingers crossed,he is nervous but thats to be expected because all of us are and it's not us that have had the scan!
I would just like to ask why it takes so long for the results to come back to us,it has taken 2 weeks,when he gets the results i bet if he has to go again for something,be it some more x-rays or consultations he will have a 1 or 2 week wait again,why does it take so long with such an illness?
Su.

Hello Su

I put your question to my colleague, Dr Coyle, who is our radiation oncologist :geek: .

She said:
""" We are all very sensitive :yes: to the fact that patients have a wait. It sounds like Su's father had an MRI scan, as it is noisy. The scan results aren't usually available to us within 2 days, by any means. The scan can be difficult to interpret and requires a radiologist who is specialised to read them, not just any radiologist. Head and Neck cancer is very, very complex anatomically - they are not common tumours. We have had experience with non-specialist radiologists, and it is just not the same.

The Multi-Disciplinary Team's clinic only happens twice per month. At this clinic, the patient will be seen by a group of specialists who know about their disease. This is when the context of the radiographs is put together with the clinical history and clinical findings to make a complete part of what is often a difficult jigsaw. The importance of accurate staging is to give the patient their treatment options and discuss the side effects. Without the whole team there, including the radiologist who is present at this multi-disciplinary meeting, a complete treatment plan would be impossible. Previously patients were seen by one person and then passed on to several different clinicians in a series. It often would leave the patient in a worse situation with bits of information, some of it then being retracted as further information came on board. In the end, this would result in a longer delay ."""

Dr Coyle also said:
"""Although we have sympathy with the patient's feeling of waiting, the MDM approach is the best approach with less common cancers such as head and neck cancer . Unfortunately in Britain, the system can only go as fast as all those doctors can work. Radiology is a particular shortage specialty, as is head and neck surgery, and head and neck oncology. Their lack of popularity is related to the complexity of the subject, and the fact that patients often have difficult medical problems. Luckily head and neck cancer does not spread quickly ."""

I hope that you will now have a better understanding of some of the problems my colleagues have in getting patients seen.

Best wishes

Vinod :coffee:

Thank you for your reply Dr Coyle,
yes it helped me a lot to understand the waiting times,i have never come into contact with anyone who had head and neck cancer before,so i just presumed it was as common as other types of cancer.
I suppose being told the score in one go rather than in bits is much better for the patient and their families,as i ask my dad everything i can think of!,and i was happy that he knew what was going on and was able to explain it to me as it was explained to him.
He is waiting for an appointment at the moment to go in and have his op,7 hours is a nightmare time to go through an operation,but if it goes well it will be worth it.
It will be a tough time but i am staying positive now i have got over the shock of it all and letting him know that we are all here for him and i drilled it into him that he should'nt feel like an invilid for asking for help.
I should expect he will need it when he comes home.
I will let you know how he gets on,when he hears more.
Thanks all!