Lung Cancer Pathology Report

Can you ask your doctor to explain your pathology report?

Adenocarcinoma in the most common type of lung cancer and has the most treatment options of them all. The immunostain readings are commonly associated with adeno and confirm the findings. Your surgeon will have sent a piece of the tumor off for further biomarker testing to determine what treatment options are best.

I'm 13.5 years living with stage 4 lung poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma.

Your surgeon's office should have someone on call today. Call that number and ask for a call back.

Good luck in having a doctor talk to you in this day and age. I'm also gong to see if I can get a second opinion on the needle biopsy. I sent my dr. an email message but his nurse probably will talk to me. You pay a doctor you should be able to talk to your dr. not the staff or nurse. Years ago you could, now no.

I don't have a surgeon. I only have a pulmonary dr. at this point. I explained to the nurse before my biopsy that if the results are bad I want the doctor to call me right away. I don't want to have to wait until the end of June to see him or have refer to an oncologist. I'm leery on pathology reports as my late husband had a pathology report that was wrong. So ever since then I don't have much trust unless I get a second opinion and not from a doctor's partners.

dablues82- I would call and ask to speak with the doctor. If they send a report, they need to cover it with you. I had one for a bone marrow biopsy that posted on Sunday in my hospital portal. Tuesday, I had a regular appointment and he reviewed it with me. I had a number of questions I was able to ask.
I understand your trust with Doctors, yet a friend of mine who was a nurse for nearly 40 years, says physicians' assistants and nurse practitioners are a godsend for patients. They have the facts and can answer our questions when the doctor is overbooked.
From my experience, next may likely be an oncologist.

@dablues82, keep in mind that no one in this group is a thoracic oncologist. Take everything that Dr. Google tells you with several grains of salt. Your doctor should recommend an Oncologist and it's good if those two know each other. But you can start looking on your own. I've had good success with healthgrades.com.

I attended a GO2 for Lung Cancer webinar recently where the invited speaker was an Oncologist from San Francisco. She talked about the explosion of lung cancer research and progress in the last 10 years, taking up half her time to stay current. On top of that, she's constantly having to check her phone messages, text messages (most doctors communicate with each other via text), online portal, staff, and her carrier pigeons to see if anyone is trying to contact her! @katgob is right when she says PAs and nurse practitioners are valuable sources of credible information.

Ask for a biomarker test if you haven't already gotten one. That's newer technology, but it can identify the specific type of lung cancer you have, which can determine the best treatment.

I have always gotten a second opinion, even though I've had outstanding care. I recommend everyone get a second opinion. They'll ask for all your records, so find out how to transfer those.

Hang in there. Cancer is a marathon, not a sprint. The good news is that life expectancy with lung cancer has gotten much better. I'm a 7-year survivor with 3-and-a-half of those years at stage IV.

Call the pulmonologists office then. When I couldn't get an answer, I went and sat in a chair directly across from the reception office so the had to see me every time they looked up. Eventually, I got my questions answered.

I don't know which doctor you saw but I've found that all of my doctors talk to me and refer me as needed. Perhaps, as was mentioned, you need a second opinion.

Wow! Thanks for your reply. Gives me hope for my husband.
Was it stage 4 bc it metastasized? (My husband’s LLL LC went to adrenal.)
Can you provide your treatment? (My husband had chemo and now immunotherapy.)

My lower left primary was large-13x9x10.5. It did move to the upper right. It was 4 based on size alone, but the right mets also qualified it.

My treatment was Cisplatin with etopicide. I had concurrent radiation. In 2010 they was no immunotherapy. My response was unusual but not unheard of.