husband was told pancreatic cancer - Pet scan found 12-15 ulcers

	Asked by skywolves (Male ) on Sun 30, Mar 2008 07:29pm :
	my husband has lost 55 pds since last april. he has bad painin his stomach and has to go to emergency room to get shot of morphine to dim the pain. he had a petscan and they found 12-15 ulcers in the lining of his stomach.one doctor thought it might be pancreatic cancer but no cancer showed up. now the VA. set up appointment with oncologists to talk about petscan. What could it be. he is on medicne for ulcers but its not working and still loosing weight. any ideas? thank you
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	Answer by Dr Heinrik M, MD (oncologist) on Mon 31, Mar 2008 09:45am: Hi, Try to find out what specific tests were performed. Does the statement that no cancer showed up mean that a biopsy was done on the ulcers? Or were the doctors looking for disease outside the stomach - looking into the pancreas if it was suspect on the PET. Was there a CT that was also done? Does he have no symptoms at all anywhere else but pain in the stomach? Cancers in the advanced setting may induce weight loss, but in most cases there would be a suspect area where a biopsy can be performed. In this case, the weight loss may be explained by problems in the stomach or anywhere along the gastro intestinal tract. There are chronic infections like tuberculosis that can also make patients lose weight. Does he have diarrhea? is there a reason to suspect malabsorption? An analysis of stool may yield important results. Also, an investigation through scopes may provide some clue (unfortunately this is quite invasive). The medications are only addressing the pain, I don’t think you can expect the weight loss to stop, if these are the only measures available. Discuss the direction of the diagnostics with your doctors. Testing may be occur by shotgun approach, in which not all the tests would actually help decide what to do next but if the goal is to get answers quickly, this may be the way to go. Another approach is to do cascades of tests in sequence, whichever the approach, at some point some people may refuse to go on further - it would be best to come up with an acceptable plan. Thank you for using our service.  If you are satisfied with the answer or if you want a detailed answer for your question, please make a donation and request for further clarifications.  Our oncologists will provide an elaborate answer for your clarification.   Please make a donation by clicking the button below. You may donate using funds from your PayPal account or Credit Card. Please rate my answer (select the stars below, no need to log in.)
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