Is PET-CT necessary for the diagnosis and review of lymphoma?

  What are the advantages of PET-CT examination over regular CT?  1.The advantage of PET-CT is that it can show the functional information of the lesion Is the cost of PET-CT relatively expensive? Is it also not covered by medical insurance?  Doctor: The cost of PET-CT is relatively expensive and is not covered by medical insurance.  2.The general saying is that PET-CT scans the whole body, so is it more radioactive? Does it cause more damage to the body?  Doctor: PET itself sweeps the whole body, and the radiation damage to the human body is generally 10 times smaller than that of CT examination.  3.In addition, PET-CT has to inject medicine into the body, does it have a greater impact on the body as well?  Doctor: The radioactivity of PET-CT is only about 10 millicuries, and the half-life is less than 2 hours, so it does not cause much damage to the body.  4.Is there any difference between PET-CT examinations in different hospitals? Is it okay if I take the results to the doctor in Beijing after the examination in the local hospital?  Doctor: Yes.  5.Does PET-CT always need to confirm the diagnosis of lymphoma?  Doctor: Not necessarily. PET-CT can be used to evaluate the efficacy of certain types of lymphoma, and the diagnosis of lymphoma depends on pathological examination.  6.If I don’t want to have PET-CT examination because of financial condition, can I use normal CT examination instead?  Doctor: In most cases, it is possible.  7.Does PET-CT examination need to be performed after each chemotherapy treatment during lymphoma chemotherapy? Is plain CT (or enhanced CT) sufficient?  Doctor: PET is not always necessary, but ordinary CT is sufficient.  8.Does PET-CT need to be done every time after lymphoma is cured? Is one PET-CT examination usually enough?  Doctor: There are differences depending on the type of lymphoma, but in most cases, such as DLBCL, once a year is usually enough.