Chest Ct Scan....Question ?

Life after a breast cancer diagnosis Living with breast cancer
1

Hi,

A silly question really but am a little confused so hope someone can advise on the following.

When you have a chest Ct scan does it show your breasts ? as in would they be able to see if all was ok or can only a mammogram do this.

Thank you

Sarah.x

2

Hi Sarah,

If you had the contrast IV I think it should be able to show if there’s anything going on in your breasts as I’ve read about people who’ve been diagnosed by chance when having a CT scan for something else. However, someone might correct me? You’re having a terrible worry aren’t you? Is there nothing they can do apart from asking you to wait for a few months?

X

3

Sarah

I am having a chest ct on Friday with contrast and i was wondering the very same thing so i will ask on Friday and let u know.

Mel x

4

Hi.

Thank you both for replying, that would be brill Mel & yes Sandytoes tis a worry :frowning:

Sarah. Xx

5

Hi Sarah
I had a recent CT scan to check on my bone mets and I asked my oncologist at my follow up appt if he could still see the local recurrence I had at the same time as my mets were found. So I saw my chest, slice by slice so to speak, and he couldn’t find anything other than old scar tissue so I’d say that a CT would show up any abnormalities. As to the contrast I think that’s only for the gut - in my case checking to see if any organs were involved - luckily not!
Nicky

6

Thank you Nicky,

Sarah.xxx

7

I had a staging CT done when I still had my tumour in - and I saw the scans - and yes you could see the tumour. And see what it was doing with respect to the chest wall etc. But a CT is not very accurate for the breasts so they do not use them for diagnostic purposes.

The contrast helps to show up areas of increased vascularity and so it does help show up tumours as they have a rich blood supply.

I actually had a bilateral breast MRI scan done to make sure I only had one tumour before we decided on what surgery to do - that is the most sensitive investigation in terms of breast imaging.

Hope that helps xx

8

Hi I have ct scans every 3 months as secondariness in my lungs. my oncologist said I didn’t need a mammogram as everything could be seen by the CT scan. hope this helps

9

Thank you :slight_smile:

Sarah.xxx

10

Thanks Manny from me, as well, as it told me what the contrast does! I’d never thought about it before but also read about this just after you’d posted so I’m no longer in the dark - but am still a pin cushion when they try to find a vein :frowning:
Nicky