Cancer

i have a long family history of cancer, I am a 52 yr old female and have never had cancer, I have researched a new test PET Scan, I would like to have a full body scan instead of all the other diagnostic testing ie colonoscopy, mammogram, etc as it appears this test will cover everything, will oncologist do this test for me just as a health precaution.

[hanaguchi]

There are centers that are dedicated to performing PET scans. Getting one is usually not an issue what may be tough is getting your insurance to cover it.
Good luck.

[Amy1973]

I agree with the comment above.  I just had the test done.  I had a CT scan and they found  lumps.  Did a PET scan to see if lumps were hot.  The PET scan didn

[Enoch Choi]

An oncologist will not order a PET scan as a preventative health test within a routine health maintenance visit.  In fact, oncologists don't see patients for preventative health, your primary care physician does, and decides what diagnostic tests are appropriate.  It is not appropriate to substitute routine screening mammograms and colonoscopy and other tests with a PET scan which does not screen reliably.

Without any symptoms it's not advisable to get whole body scanning, it's not a powerful enough test to screen for the occult malignancies (cancers) you'd like to look for.

Enoch Choi, MD