Mass on lung and lymph nodes

I am in about your place. Waiting to have a PET scan this week.

How big is your mass? Have you had a CT scan?
What part of the nation are you?

I haven't told my adult children or elderly dad yet either. Beyond scared too

Regarding the lymph node in your neck, my daughter had cancer in lymph nodes in her neck from Thyroid Cancer. Mayo Clinic was one of the first many years ago to treat them with Ethanol Ablation. They inject it directly in the node and it cuts off the blood flow to the nodes and essentially destroys it. The node has to be large enough to inject and not too close to an artery or voice box to damage them. There is also Proton Beam therapy now which is used for head and neck cancers, and directly targets the node to save surrounding tissue. Again Mayo Clinic in Rochester has an entire building for this therapy. Other hospitals are getting onboard now too. There are options you just have to find out where it is offered.

Regarding machines, I too have seen different measurements on nodules. It happens with other things also - like bone density test for osteoporosis where I have seen a significant difference.

After meeting with radiologist it was decided that I would do chemo first and radiation after. This is because my lung cancer has spread to lymph node in my neck and too large of an area to do radiation on. I’m trying to remain hopeful but this does not sound like good news to me. I’m terrified to start chemo, having heard so many horror stories. Anyone else have to start with chemo first ? How did your chemo treatments go?

Hi DetroitMom,

Sending you encouraging thoughts. It sounds like your docs aren't giving you information that might help you with waiting. I'd encourage you to find a support group specifically for lung cancer. That experience really helps me with a lot of the uncertainty and anxiety of not knowing. You could look at Go2 for Lung Cancer which has a fabulous & extensive handbook with lots of good info. It's downloadable on their website.
I had SABR radiation therapy for 2 tumors last fall. It was scarier thinking about it than the actual experience. Because of the radiation method, there were only 2 treatments, 1 for each tumor. They can target the tumor to within 1 mm so the dosage can be higher with less bad effects on healthy tissue. I had itching, pain in the areas that were targeted. Probably the biggest side effect is the fatigue. It's hard to know how much could be from the cancer itself and how much is due to the radiation therapy. I'd encourage you to learn as much as you can and are comfortable with so you can ask your doc good questions that will help you cope.

Surgery would be a great treatment if it could remove the cancer and be done with it. But for me, and many others, surgery is not an option because of the location(s) of the cancer. Once they tell you that you cannot have surgery, then the other treatments start looking better.

I have had only one radiation treatment and it was for lesions in the brain. There was an appointment prior to radiation when they made a mask which would help them to focus the radiation as well as keep my head from moving.
It took about half an hour or so. There was no pain whatsoever during the treatment or after. I had no side effects which was particularly encouraging as my brain was involved.

The explanation that was given to me was, like you said - a discrepancy in how they do the testing. In my case, there is a 3x3 mass in lung with a lymph node also infected very close to the mass. The Cat scan showed it all as one big 7x7 mass.
God bless all of us going through this nightmare 🙏

I was also wondering why the sizes change from one scan to another and was told that this is very normal, I was checked with PET scan along with a CT scan and also an MRI and each one the measurements varied. All I was told when I asked why this is happening and they said that each machine takes pictures but they are never the same due to different cameras and how the pictures are taken. I'm not sure if I explained this any better than they did but at the end of the day it's all good and very normal, they will inevitably get the correct information. As cancer patients we want to know every little detail and none of us are what they refer to as ostriches, we truly are facing up to everything that comes our way. This is to say that even though we express our fears hear, we are truly a courageous group of people and even able to lend support to others during our own troubles, I say bravo to all of you.

That is good to know. My lung cancer was stage 1 thankfully. But before I had PET Scan, decided that if I had evidence of metastasis, I would have surgery and nothing else. I am 72 , have no unfinished business and don’t want to spend my life undergoing cancer therapy. While I still feel that way, these many posts tell me there is a future.