Pulmo or Oncologist?

[Debbie2003]

I am wondering which doctor is more important in this process of diagnosis. Which would know more about LC issues? I have both and will see both. But they seem to not be on the same page on certain things. Like I had a PET which was ordered by the oncologist. But the Pulmo said that small nodules don't show up on the PET and that sometimes a "positive" for cancer PET can often be incorrect. Sometimes it could be an infection but it shows up as positive on the PET. He also said that it's extremely rare that a negative for cancer report is incorrect. So he said a negative PET is the only truly useful report (if the nodule or tumor is big enough.) Is that right?

[Guest]

If you look at this web site, you can see that a PET scan is better than a CT scan. The percentages are higher. There is also a new device which combines a PET and a CT scanner into one scan. A combined PET/CT scanner (this is probably the best device currently)

http://www.petscaninfo.com/zportal/port ... /spec_sens

Sensitivity for staging is 83% (17% false positives)

Specificity for stating is 91% ( 9% chance for a false negative)

Sensitivity for diagnosis is 96% (4% false positvies)

specificity for diagnosis is 73% (27% chance for a false negative)

An oncologist is the cancer specialist. For lung cancer find a lung cancer specialist. I don't think he is correct about the negative is incorrect if the above figures are correct

[Don Wood]

We have both onc and pulm, and use them as we need. The onc runs the show for us, though. We have not had the problem of one ordering scans and the other not on the same page. Good luck. Don

[kimblanchard]

My pulmonologist is the one who discovered my cancer. He has been my doc for several years and we have an excellent repore. He referred me to the oncologist who realizes that before I make any major decision in this matter I will check with the pulmonologist who really acts as my primary care doc in this situation. the two docs confer by phonee and by mail.