<s>[INST] Hi I am asking on behalf of a friend.  She had surgery over a year ago to remove a large tumour on her spine.  The pain has slowly come back to as bad as it was before and they have done CAT scans, xrays and now an MRI.  The MRI shows two spots on the same vertabrae that the tumour was on.  One doctor says it's cancer and now today her surgeon says the spots are just blood from the surgery.  Could they be blood spots from the surgery after a year?Di [/INST] Hi, thanks for writing in. The fresh MRI pictures need to be compared with the pre operative ones. Only then can one comment on the issue of recurrence of the tumor. The theory of blood clot sounds quite funny. In fact a contrast enhanced MRI will surely help in diagnosing any recurrence f there is any. Regards </s>