What is "hypermetabolic activity"????

My daughter who just finished undergoing several weeks of both chemo and radiation treatment for rectal cancer, recently had a PET scan done. She was cleared of any matastatic disease at this point, however, it did seem to indicate "some mildly hypermetabolic activity over the gallbladder", and the report went on to read, "mild inflammation is not ruled out." Does this mean the cancer may have spread to her gallbladder???? She is scheduled for surgery on June 20th for a probable resection of her rectal tumor... will they most likely remove her gallbladder at the same time, just to be on the safe side????

Hypermetabolic activity just means that it's working harder/faster than it should be. Metabolism usually refers to the chemical reactions that occur within cells. I don't know an awful lot about this, but I if those processes are more active than normal that probably means that her gallbladder is using more energy than it normally would and that it's generating more digestive juices than normal. Since they said that the problem was mild and they didn't tell you that they would remove the gallbladder, I wouldn't assume that they would do so. On the other hand, I don't want to say that without knowing any more than I do. If you can call the doctor or someone else in the office to double-check, that would probably be your best bet.

Hypermetabolic refers to the physiological state of having a greatly increased rate of metabolic activity. It is usually brought on by healthy conditions such as pregnancy or during the recovery period following an injury, such as a severe burn. Hypermetabolism can also be brought on by hyperthyroidism, an abnormal condition of overactive thyroid.