Scared, repost to member update

[RonL]

And thanks to step, for her responses.

I had a ct done in May, which showed nothing. Now its September. And had a routine xray done for possible bronchitis. It comes back reporting a 5 cm rounded masslike density obscuring a portion of the right heart border, felt to be within the right middle lobe. I'm waiting on a ct referral, but everything I read online is horrible, dismal survival rates, maybe jumping the gun a little, but that 0 to 5 cm in 4 months is very disconserting. Anything hopeful to even consider on this ? Very upset and scared.

It's that 0-5 cm that is blowing my mind at the moment.  That seems really bad. And its torture just waiting on getting the darned ct referral.. arrrrgh

[BridgetO]

Hi Ron,

Of course you're upset and scared. Yes, that quick increase is pretty scary!  But not every nodule or mass is cancer. There are inflammations and infections that can also show up on Xrays. You won't know anything for sure until you've had a lot more testing.

My lung cancer was slow growing, so my experience with it was different. However, previous to the lung cancer,   I had an aggressive cervical/endometrial cancer. I had had annual pap smears which were always negative, but my cancer grew from nothing showing  to Stage 3 in less than a year. I had what my oncologist called a "dismal prognosis". I had aggressive treatment and today, 7 years later I have no evidence of disease. (no evidence of disease on the lung cancer either).  So even with fast growing cancers, there are good treatments and cures.

Don't rely too much on survival statistics, for a couple of reasons. First,  what's often cited is 5 year survival rates, so those people were diagnosed at least 5 years ago, and often the studies are much older than that. There are a whole lot new treatments that have become available in the las few years and more being tested and approved every year. Those people ireflected in the stats didn't have all this new stuff available to them. In other words, the stats are way out of date. Also, stats  only reflect an average and a lot of people do way better than the average.

Waiting for test results can be the hardest part. We've all been there. Hang in there! 

There is hope! And these forums are a good place to find it, and to find information and support as well.

Bridget O