Scan results

[JoshK]

Hi All,

I had been very active on this forum earlier this year but have been rather absent as work and life got very busy and cancer got better.

However, I have a big worry now. To quickly reiterate  my story, my Mom had a seizure in January and was diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) metastasized to the brain. It was a very minimal, small, peripheral metastasis which was easily resected via surgery and then zapped with gamma knife. She was up and walking a few days after the surgery and never looked back. Her primary tumor was also small (2 cm x 1 cm), peripheral and asymptomatic. She breezed through chemo and was NED after just 2 cycles and continued through 6 at a relatively high dosage because she handled it without any side effects whatsoever. That was in June. In September, she had 25 rounds of thoracic radiation. She also breezed through that without any symptoms whatsoever, so the doctor actually upped her dosage and finished 5 days early (it was supposed to be 30 sessions). Due to the higher dosage, she finally got a bit of a rash the last week.

She continues to be totally fine, but she did just have a scan. I normally like to be at appointments with her, but I couldn't make this one. The radiation report showed the sudden appearance of a multitude of small nodules on her lung (largest being 7mm, some ground-glass). I wanted to attach it here, but it's too large a file. However, according to her, the radiation oncologist and oncologist both said it's nothing to worry about and that this was a normal side effect of the damage/irritation caused by radiation. This would be expected especially because of the high dosage of radiation my Mom had, and she even further claimed the doctor said that the nodules radiated out of the area that received the most radiation.

Okay, that all makes sense to me, except...I've never read anything that corroborates that, the doctors didn't warn us to expect this, and my Mom has a history of just completely hearing the opposite of what the doctor said and making stuff up. I'd like to talk to the doctor myself but won't be able to until Thursday, and I leave for a 2-week trip then.

Does anyone have any experience with scans post-thoracic radiation? Should I worry? Ever heard of this.

For the first  time in a long time, I am really nervous. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[LexieCat]

Hi, Josh,

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but a quick google search ("nodules resulting from lung radiation") came up with this: https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/full/10.1148/rg.244035160.

Sounds like it does happen...

[JoshK]

Hi LexieCat - funny when I googled almost the exact same thing, I didn't get that article...actually plenty of stuff from that publication, but not that article. Thanks a lot for putting me more at ease - it does sound like it's normal.

Lots of people get radiation to the lungs though...wonder what their experience was.