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Spiculated Lung Mass

Posted by ashscott1012 @ashscott1012, 11 hours ago

My husband had an incidental finding of a 3.1 CM right middle lobe mass in Jan. Prior to that, we had the flu over Christmas and he had severe symptoms. He saw the pulmonologist after the finding who stated that she believed it was an infectious process from the flu. He just had a followup scan, which has been 3 months, and the mass is now 2.5 CM, but the report stated it was a slight reduction and this does not rule out neoplasm and needs a PET scan. He's very healthy and has never been a smoker with no symptoms of being sick. If this was cancerous, would it have even reduced in size and if it was an infectious process, would this not have cleared up by now? He follows up with the pulmonologist next week.

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mamajite | @mamajite | 9 hours ago

hi @ashscott1012 - it's always worrying when an unexpected finding shows up on imaging. cancer generally gets bigger, not smaller. that said, sometimes there can be a difference in the way a radiologist measured the mass/nodule, or a difference from machine to machine. a PET scan would give additional information (the higher the uptake, the more likely it's malignant.) but the only way to know for sure what you're dealing with is a biopsy. It's good he's seeing the pulmonologist next week. I expect they will order the PET scan (as recommended by the radiologist) and based on that result, decide what the best next step would be. please let us know how the appointment goes.

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ashscott1012 | @ashscott1012 | 8 hours ago
In reply to @mamajite "hi @ashscott1012 - it's always worrying when an unexpected finding shows up on imaging. cancer generally..." + (show)
Profile picture for mamajite @mamajite

hi @ashscott1012 - it's always worrying when an unexpected finding shows up on imaging. cancer generally gets bigger, not smaller. that said, sometimes there can be a difference in the way a radiologist measured the mass/nodule, or a difference from machine to machine. a PET scan would give additional information (the higher the uptake, the more likely it's malignant.) but the only way to know for sure what you're dealing with is a biopsy. It's good he's seeing the pulmonologist next week. I expect they will order the PET scan (as recommended by the radiologist) and based on that result, decide what the best next step would be. please let us know how the appointment goes.

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@mamajite Thank you! I will certainly update.

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