C	=	covered - Not eligible for entry in the NOPR
NC	=	non-covered nationally - Not eligible for entry in the NOPR
NOPR	=	covered only with entry in the NOPR

1. Some Medicare contractors include anal cancer in their local coverage of "colorectal cancer"; for PET facilities served by those carriers, PET for subsequent treatment evaluation of anal cancer would be a covered indication.
2. PET is non-covered for initial staging for axillary lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer and of regional lymph nodes in patients with melanoma, but is covered for detection of distant metastatic disease in high-risk patients with breast cancer or melanoma.
3. PET is non-covered for "diagnosis" of breast cancer to evaluate a suspicious breast mass. However, PET is covered for initial treatment strategy evaluation of a patient with axillary nodal metastasis of unknown primary origin or in a patient with a paraneoplastic syndrome potentially caused by an occult breast cancer.
4. Patient must have prior CT or MRI negative for extrapelvic metastatic disease for PET to qualify as a covered indication for initial treatment strategy evaluation. Patients who do not qualify for this covered indication (e.g., because CT or MRI was not done or because either CT or MRI showed extrapelvic metastatic disease) can be entered on NOPR.
5. To qualify as a covered indication for subsequent treatment strategy evaluation, thyroid cancer must be of follicular cell origin and been previously treated by thyroidectomy and radioiodine ablation and the patient must have a serum thyroglobuilin > 10ng/ml and negative whole-body I-131 scan. Patients who do not qualify for this covered indication (e.g., because tumor is of other than follicular cell origin, the thryoglobulin is not elevated, or I-131 whole-body imaging was not performed or is positive) can be entered on NOPR.