If you had a clear scan (CAT/PET/whatever) after surgery and there is no
other cause for concern then regular scans (to screen for mets.) are not
generally considered helpful.  Although I dare say some of the better
funded medical schemes will happily do it if the patient asks.  It might
also be recommended for a minority of patients at high risk of recurrence.

There is a lot of radiation dose in a PET scan or bone scan, rather less
in a CAT, and doing them regularly to everyone who ever had bc surgery
will cause more cancers than it detects.

There is also the question of what you would do with the information
should there be a positive result.  The rate of false positives is quite
high, most of us have some sort of benign lumps and bumps internally
that the scan will detect, which can be confused with cancers.

In the unlikely event that a distant recurrence is detected, in most
cases no treatment will be recommended until it becomes symptomatic
anyway.  This used to be standard procedure, but since the advent of
Herceptin and its ilk, there is a minority of patients (like Allan's
Deborah) who can be effectively treated at this stage to hold the
disease in abeyance for some time.

Tim Jackson

Same.  I've had a number of scans over the last few years (bone scan, CAT,
MRI) when I had symptoms (back pain, persistent morning headaches, etc.).
All of the symptoms turned out to be routine causes, but they always jump
right to the scan for certain symptom sets, to rule out mets.  (I had quite
locally advanced BC, which may make a difference -- the primaries were
sufficiently extensive, and my BC discovered due to an enlarged lymph node,
so that I think my surgeon was surprised at the results of a pre-treatment
bone scan (clear).)

Every once in a while, one of the oncos has decided I should have a lung
x-ray "just because" (i.e., no symptoms), and my gyno does abdominal
ultrasounds and (owwie) endometrial biopsies regularly (because of the risk
of gynecological cancers in women who've had BC, plus elevated cervical
cancer risk in those who've taken Tamoxifen . . . and I have a history of
occasional spotty bleeding, besides).

They do blood tests every year - CBC/liver, no markers.   That and the gyno
stuff are the only routine scan/test stuff.

Like Tim said, they'll usually only treat mets if symptomatic, and there's
risk involved in scans, so why do them?  That seems scary at first, but not
so bad once you've been out of treatment for a while <g>.

The friends who ask you may be asking because (1) they don't have any
experience and only know what they read in magazines, which is often goofy;
or (2) they have experience with other types of cancer, where the practice
guidelines may be different.

Deep breath, don't worry -- if you're feeling good, odds are excellent that
you're fine.

Happy holidays,

Ann T.

My diagnosis and treatment was more than 23 years ago, so I'm sure my
protocol is "old hat", but I had follow up bone scans, chest x-rays,
mammograms.

Barb