Surveillance Scan

Surveillance Scan is a program developed for Windows that belongs to the category Communication software and has been created by Surveillance Technologies. This application uses non-ionizing radiation (like the millimeter wave machines used in airports) to send energy across a surface and record the electrons that bounce back, giving a picture of what's present.

Posttreatment surveillance scans for patients who seem to be in remission after radiation therapy are frequently recommended by oncologists on the basis of the premise that detection of early disease recurrence improves prognosis. However, the evidence supporting this proposition is limited.

A number of studies have shown that asymptomatic relapses are detected more often by symptoms or at provider visits than by surveillance scanning. This is consistent with the finding that surveillance bone marrow examinations, a test which consists of a history taking and physical exam with a blood draw, have no impact on outcome in patients with aggressive NHL.

The frequency of radiographically detectable relapsed disease increases with the duration of the asymptomatic period, so to be effective, surveillance imaging procedures would need to be repeated at a frequency that corresponds to the average duration of this asymptomatic phase in each patient. This might be difficult in BCL, but could be feasible for DLBCL and HL.

The results of one study of 86 children with medulloblastoma suggest that surveillance scanning is of little value in this type of tumor. Only 4 asymptomatic recurrences (17 percent of all recurrences) were detected by scans, and 19 (83 percent) were detected clinically because of symptoms such as ataxia, dysmetria, sixth-nerve palsy, hemiparesis, diplopia, or nystagmus. None of the patients with recurrent medulloblastoma survived.