MBCB

Thanks Tom. Helpful to see your results and the explanations of those results.

Thanks Gary. The size at 20mm seems to be back where I started in 2018 when it was two adjacent nodules at 14mm x 14mm and 5mm x 10mm. Now it is one at 20mm. It had gone down to 8mm before that. I am just hoping this has been going on from even before September 2018 when it was discovered as an incidental finding and that it is more a chronic issue. To your point it may be different on the next scan and smaller (or bigger). In any case I think it's about time for the needle biopsy at least. If it is infectious or inflammatory and not a cancer, maybe they can figure it out then. Not loo

I had my PET CT today and got my results online. My doctor is away this week so I don't expect to hear from him. Here are the results: CHEST: There is abnormal hypermetabolic activity in the right lung nodule with SUV max measuring 4.4. No additional hypermetabolic lung nodule or mass. No hypermetabolic or suspicious nodes. No significant change in appearance of the nodule when compared to prior CT. However, it has grown over time. Both infectious and neoplastic etiologies are in the differential and CT guided biopsy might be considered for diagnosis. IMPRESSION: 1. HYPERMETABOLI

So my pulmonologist called and given the increase in size over the past 11 months and despite the previous increases and decreases in the size of the nodule over 2+ years, he wants me to get a PET CT which he already scheduled for next Wednesday and then a needle biopsy. He met with a radiologist and interventional radiologist today. He said even if the PET CT is negative, he wants to get a tissue sample since it could be an infectious or inflammatory process not related to cancer. Trying to look at the positive that at least I will know either way but hard to do. Originally they said a ne

Thank you ChiMama. Lexie noted that as well and my own pulmonologist had said to get scans from the same imaging centers for consistency. Due to circumstances I have had three different imaging centers doing the scans now and even within the same one there have been different reading radiologists so the consistency just isn't there. My pulmonologist said he is going to sit down in person with the radiologist at the hospital and review the scan together with him. The cancer center I went to brought this to their tumor board a couple years back and definitively said this isn't a cancer but t

I meant to add that I had a bronchoscopy too in 2019 and they thought it may be aspergillosis but the culture was inconclusive/negative. They could not sample the spot but did a "wash" of the area to collect cells to culture.

Thank you all for your quick responses. Your points look spot on and very relevant to my situation. Given the prior size and the fact that they were shrinking, the doctors didn't want to biopsy and did mention that the uptake during a PET may not be there and could even cause a false positive result. Also, they did not want to biopsy because of the location at the lower right lung and closer to the spine. It was too far for needle biopsy and would have required open surgery. Things went well the last three scans with two shrinking and one stable until the scan I had this week. Radiologis

I had a pulmonary nodule identified incidentally on my lower right lobe that started out at 14mm x 5mm x 6mm. In two months in grew to 14mm x 14mm. Another nodule was also found that was 5mm x 10mm. On the next scan three months later it shrunk to 11mm x 7mm x 13mm and there was only one nodule. On a scan seven months after that it was down to 8mm x 5mm. Five months after that there was no change. Fast forward to 11 months later and I had a cardiac CT where a 20mm nodule in the same spot was picked up. Waiting for a pulmonology consult but is it possible this is cancer after shrinking a