Why give a cat scan?

My grandfather has just been told he has two tumours on his lungs and now they are taking him into hospital for cat scan, what would this be for, i know they give them to check your brain, but is it for other things as well or are they checking for a bvrain tumour too? i just dont understand the significance of it considering they only told him about the tumours on his lungs

Computer Aided Tomography Scans are done in order to assess how far the cancer has progressed and what treatment, if any will be most effective.
CATS are also done to assess if there is any spread of the cancer to other parts of the body. The result sof the scan will determine the course of treatment and give the Drs a reasonable time scale for the patients prognosis.

CAT SCANS ARE USED TO SCAN ALL THE BODY AND THEY MAY WANT TO CHECK ON THE SCAN PICTURES IF EVERYTHING ELSE IS CLEAR.

CAT scans check for more than just brain tumours. I think if the doctor ordered it, you should relax and let them do their job.

They need to find out exactly what the tumors look like and the best way is with a scan.

They can catscan or CT scan any part of your body. It's commonly used for brains, but can be used anywhere else. It simply gives a much more detailed image of what's going on inside - in this case, the location and size of the lung tumours. This will tell the doctors whether or not your grandfather's condition is operable. It's like a super-detailed x-ray.

A CAT scan can be used anywhere on the body, its a way of looking at deep tissue. It will show the tumours up whereas an Xray will only show bone in any detail. I've had CAT scans on my back, though I eneded up needing MRI scans as they show even more detail. Its a painless way of looking, non invasive. Good luck to your Grandfather.

cat means colour aided tomography. in any image we see, like Xray its 2D, CAT scan makes it 3D, and easier to interpret, without the need for surgery.

im an amputee... and i remember when this took hours

A CAT scan can be used to scan any part of the body for a range of illness / issues. When you get a CAT scan they inject a type of ink into the circulatory system and when scanning a particular area they can see the targeted area more clearly. In the images that they'll get from the scan, they'll be able to see how large the tumours are on his llungs and also see the amount of blood vessels feeding the tumours. This is quite an important scan, as it can show the doctors a lot about what's going on inside the body and also show the possiblities of removing or destroying the tumours

a cat scan is just a device for your health provider to see inside the body to detect abnoralities. it can be a little dificult as I don't like to be in enclosed areas. I was slightly uncomtable and it seemed to take forever to get all the "pictures" but I am glad i had it done...it was all negative but now I know...your gramps will probably not like all these tests and who would blame him. its for the best...really..most tumours are not life threatening but you do not want to take the risk. p.s. ..i have three grand children too

My mother had a cat scan when she had lung cancer Thankfully she`s doing really well , the cat scan shows up any cancer in the body so they know how far its gone and makes it much more accurate to treat
Hopefully your Grandfather will be OK

If the tumors were found by a chest x-ray, then a CT scan is necessary for better visualization. Possibly to see if they can access the tumors for biopsies by a brochoscopy (putting a tube down into the lungs with a camera).
They also do CT scans of the abdomen and pelvis to look for additional areas suspicious for cancer (if they have determined that this is actually a cancer) so they can "stage" the cancer.
There are different stages of cancers from stage 1 through stage 4. Stage 1 is the earliest form and stage 4 is the most advanced. Staging is necessary to determine what is the most appropriate form of treatment for your grandfather.
I hope this helps - good luck to you and your family.

CT are done for many reasons. Just because he has tumors on his lungs means nothing. They need to know if these are the primary cancer or if they are metastatic. ( moved to the lungs from another cancer, ie prostate,colon . ) They will also check the vascularity of the tumors, and make sure they have not invaded any vessels or organs. This tells them if it is operable or not. plus gives them a good ideal on how to approach a biopsy if needed. Head ct's are only the tip of the ice burg. CT's diagnose peoples problems. Cancers, aneurysm, pulmonary embolisms, dissections, cysts, pneumonia, etc. A lot of information is needed before they just start throwing drugs at a problem. Good luck.