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Cavity in lung
Hi everyone. I have a rather long story but I’ll try to keep it brief. Last month, my mother was in the hospital for stroke symptoms. Her first CT scan showed a thick-walled spiculated cavity of almost 3cm in her right upper lung. The internist seemed pretty certain that the finding was cancer. However a pulmonologist was brought onto her case and felt that the cavity was likely due to infectious causes. Because she was on blood thinner due to her suspected mini-stroke she could only have a bronchoscopy with brushing and lavage, no biopsy. The bronchoscopy results showed no TB, no malignant cells but was positive for MAC. Her internist wanted her to still go ahead with the biopsy, which she had last week. She had a partial lung collapse and is now waiting to have her chest tube removed. I read the results of a second CT scan that she had, which mentions the cavity, but not spiculated features, but also mentions adjacent bronchiectasis and ground glass opacity which the radiologist felt was infectious in nature. We are waiting for her biopsy results and as you can imagine it’s difficult. I should mention my mom is 68, without risk factors for lung cancer. She’s very active and walks 10km a day. She also is quite thin. We lost my dad to colon cancer in 2020 so this feels all too familiar.
My question is if anyone has ever gone through something similar or has any insight into what we are dealing with. Thanks in advance.
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@annieo76 Welcome to Mayo Connect. Your Mom is lucky to have you watching out for her.
The description of your Mom could be a commercial for a specific category of people who get MAC and Bronchiectasis. It is called Lady Windermere Syndrome and affects active older women who are very thin with no (or minimal) history of smoking or other risk factors. It nearly always presents as a pneumonia-like condition at first, and the ground-glass opacities bear this out.
So I think you can both breathe a sigh of relief - that sharp-eyed pulmonologist was most likely correct. If she can it would be a good idea to select him to be her lung doc.
Please let me know through this discussion what you learn from the biopsy.
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2 ReactionsThank you so much for your reply. It was very reassuring. We have an appointment with the infectious disease doctor today and I hope to get some more information from her. We still have not received the biopsy results. Those should come in the next couple of days.
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2 ReactionsI just wanted to say I’m thinking of you both. I’m pretty darn sure your Momma doesn’t have cancer. I’m also wondering if you let your doctor know the internist over road what her doctor determined. I have to say I would be terribly up set about this behavior. So sorry you and your mother are going through a tough time. Did I mention I’m well over 68 and have been dealing with lung issues. I’ve been told I have cancer so many times, if I printed them out I could wallpaper my bedroom. Stay strong and stay positive.
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3 ReactionsAfter 2 and a half long weeks, my mother’s biopsy came back negative for cancer! We are very relieved on that front. The doctor said that the tissue had a lot of inflammation and they believe it is most likely caused by MAC disease. I realize MAC is a serious infection and I’m not sure yet what we are in store for. However, it is nice to finally have an answer. Thank you for the support.:)
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