A type of scan where a special camera will pick up a harmless radioactive sugar that is injected into your body. Most cancer cells will use up far more of the sugar than normal cells and therefore show up on the camera. This helps doctors tell if your Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinaemia has spread to other parts of the body. Read more about having a PET scan.
What are they looking for?
Some cancer cells are very active and so use up a lot of the sugar you fuel your body with. When you have a PET scan, you will be injected with a harmless radioactive form of sugar (called a radiotracer). The scan uses a camera that picks up the radiotracer in your cells, which may show your doctor where your WM is in your body.
Like a CT scan, a PET scan cannot diagnose Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinaemia by itself.
What happens at a PET scan?
Most people will have a PET scan as an outpatient at their hospital. Some smaller hospitals don’t have the facilities, so you may have to travel to a larger centre.
Before your scan, your medical team should give you information about the scan, including how you need to prepare and whether you need to fast (not eat or drink) beforehand, and what to do about any medication you take. If you have any other conditions or take medication, it’s important to speak to your medical team about this beforehand, in case they have an effect on the scan. If you are diabetic, it is important to have controlled blood sugar at the time of the scan.
You’ll be asked questions about your general health, to ensure that the radiotracer is safe for you to have. You can also talk to the staff if you have any worries about having the scan – it’s very common for people to feel ill at ease or even fearful of having a scan and they will be able to help you with the experience.
A PET scan can take between 30 and 60 minutes, but you will be in hospital much longer as the radiotracer has to be given time to take effect before you have the scan.
You will be injected with the radiotracer around an hour before your scan. For the scan itself, you’ll be asked to remove any metal items (like a watch or underwired bra) before going into the scanner itself. Just like a CT scan, you’ll need to lie on a bed that rolls into the scanner and you’ll need to lie very still for the duration. The staff will leave the room, but will be monitoring you behind a glass window and are there on the end of a two-way speaker if you become distressed or unwell.
After the scan, you might need to stay a little longer to ensure you don’t have a reaction with the radiotracer, but you should be able to leave shortly afterwards. You should limit close contact with pregnant women, babies and young children for 6 hours after your scan. This is because there will be some trace of radioactivity in your body from the radiotracer.
If you are planning to travel through an air or sea port within a few days of your scan, it might be worth getting a note from your doctor to say that you have recently had a PET scan. This is because ports have radiation alarms that can be triggered by extremely small levels of radiation.
