Do oncologists routinely request catscans?

[Justshabbynochic]

...if say, you were diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and never before had a catscan, would it be routine or would it be because they're suspicious that it's spread?

Usually the primary tumour is analysed to determine type and stage.
From this it can be predicted if there are possible/probable secondaries.
The CT and MRI scans are then used to search for them.

In some cancers a scan is done before the biopsy/op to see if there are secondaries.

Having a scan for the first time a few years after being diagnosed with cancer, suggests the person went to GP with symptoms.

Think that is a normal part of the recall screening process, to check the area they operated on .

It's secondary bone cancer, and she went for a routine consultation. However, lately she's been having bouts of confusion. It's the first time she's walked away from a consultation with a mention of further investigative tests...we were just wondering if it was routine or whether they've become concerned.

Thank you for replying.

Hard to know, it could be a part of normal recall screening. They might be planning to scale down frequencies of appointments and doing a routine 'belt and braces'

If someone who had previously had a tumour presented with bouts of confusion, then a CT would be first port of call for sure - there are lots of things that can cause confusion, but obviously one thing that an oncologist is going to worry about is the cancer having spread to their brain, so they'll check for that first rather than after all other possible causes have been ruled out as would happen without that history iyswim.

The scan appt should come through very quickly, so please try not to worry or get ahead of things for now.