Hi. I’ve been following this site and all of you for some time now and really find you to be such a wonderful community of supportive people. I’ve certainly learned a lot from your stories and admire your strength and care for one another.
I am a 58 year old former smoker, active and fit, although I have been dealing with extreme fatigue for a long time now. I am normally a high energy person, so that’s a bit frustrating.
In March 2021, a 13mm nodule was found (CT scan)in my upper right lung, alongside scarring which was found in both lung apices.
A PET followed and only showed minimal uptake in SUV(1.7) there was also a very small punctuate calcified nodule in left lung that was of no concern. I was told that the nodule was most likely the result of scar tissue and fibroblasts and that I also had mild bronchiolectasis. Plan was to follow up with CT scans and watch.
After a couple of CT scans over the past year, nodule remained “persistent” but did not grow. My doctor offered a blood test that finds circulating tumor proteins and gives a risk assessment on suspicion of malignancy. I went from a pretest probability of about 19% malignancy to a strongly positive test now stating almost 80% chance.
That led me to a Needle biopsy, which I just had yesterday. I won’t get the results until next week, but the radiology asst. was pretty certain it was not cancer. He specializes in these biopsies and was pretty confident.
I would like to know if anyone else has had a similar experience or had a “liquid biopsy” along with CT scans to make your diagnosis. If in fact this nodule is benign, does anyone know why I would have(as my Dr. Reported) a strongly positive amount of CTC’s in my blood? He said I was the first patient who had a positive result since he’s been using this test.
Wishing all a happy weekend and good thoughts and wishes.
