Lung nodule... Reassuring results but still anxious

Then it’s her call. I’m jaded because that little ole thing in me with a “slight” chance of being cancer in fact, was. Personally I’d do the 6 month CT plan and see the oncologist before I walked away from monitoring. But as I said- I’m jaded.

Definitely will continue monitoring. As far as the oncologist, I do not see how they could be helpful in this situation. Without biopsy, there is just speculation on the definite diagnosis. They are not pulmonologists/radiologists and cannot interpret CT results. Unless pulmonologist refers to surgery for biopsy, following up with oncology is not indicated.

To be fair, he told Me in advance that if path showed malignancy he would Go immediately to lobectomy. He also Told Me there was only a 25% chance it would be malignant. I was a bit panicked and just wanted it all over with.

He did a wedge resection with the tumor and sent it to pathologist who knew it was Coming. He said it’s malignant and surgeon went back to work. The staging came afterwards. No chemo. I deferred to the collective wisdom. Not a terrible idea but neither is exploring less traumatic options.

I am reading studies that suggest if it is early stage and margins and nodes are clean the wedge resection is as reliable for preventing recurrence. . So discuss it with your Mom’s surgeon Up front.

I had Pet scans done since my diagnosed colon cancer in 2019. Recurrence to liver twice, and nodule in the lung that was the same size for 3 years, with 2 more nodules that appeared later on. My last pet scan and blood work are good, scan shows one nodule from 5mm-6mm-8-mm now 9mm shows benign, and two other nodules did not appear. Cea levels are in range. I'm praying and thanking God for this result, but can't help feeling worried, with previous cancer and treatment, It's hard to keep my peace. If it wasn't for all my support and faith, I'd be worse off. Thank you for sharing.. and will pray for all here.

Welcome - and I’m sure one of our awesome mentors will find their way to this post soon with an official welcome.

I had a nodule discovered when I was having a chest X-ray in response to a positive Tb Test (which turned out to be a False Positive). No TB but a 6mm nodule way down in the
Bottom outside corner of my left
Lower lobe. Mmm. Assumption was that since I have RA it was an RA nodule. Let’s Watch it. Next year it was 7 mm. Get a PET scan since it grew a bit - all Good. Then it was 8 the next year then 9 and then last spring it was… Ruh roh - it was 14!
All hands on deck. Had surgery and tho no one predicted it, in fact it
was malignant - so out it comes along with the lobe it was resident in. That was last May. I’m good.

If I channel our awesome mentors, they would point out That you are on a board dedicated to Lung cancer. So anyone you ask will answer from our experienced perspective - that is also biased. You know the old adage that when you have a hammer in your hand everything looks like a nail. So you have the hammer and we are all nails 🙂

I will Put my bias aside and tell you as an honest to goodness statistician to remember that statistics mean nothing to an individual. They are great for forecasting outcomes of a population - but not for a population of one.

Trust your doc or get a second opinion from an oncologist to give you peace of mind - and then live large for six months. It’s a small thing, so take a breath. Eat in great restaurants, take a cruise -
Not because you won’t be able to later but because you chose to let it go for six months.

There are a lot of great people On this board so I will hush and yield the floor 🙂

oh, got it. That's why they decided to remove the lobe. See, based on all the findings, it should not have been malignant (minus spiculation) and even with that they thought it was still benign due to small growth and negative PET....

Did you have to go through chemo/radiation? And what was the grade after biopsy?

The doctor said he didn’t even feel that follow up was needed at all based on all other results. The only reason he scheduled the 6 months CT was because of the “possible 1 mm size increase” on last CT, but that was not confirmed by PET scan, which came back as same size of 8 mm. Based on nodule presentation, the doctor thinks mild speculation was caused by severe Covid pneumonia she had back in 2021 that stretched the tissue slightly. So it has been stable in size for the past 3 years and he feels like frequent CT radiation exposure is not necessary in the case.