My experience with lung cancer

[bgh]

I thought of sharing my experience here in case others like me are searching for information.

I am 50m, never smoked, and no real history of cancer on either my mom or dad’s side. So cancer was the last thing on my mind.

I had chest pains after running about this time last year and I happened to casually mention it to my primary care physician during my annual physical. I thought it was the result of gas in my stomach as I was experiencing abdominal discomfort at that time. He surprisingly took it seriously and had me go through a battery of tests which culminated in a CT angiogram as the stress test showed some abnormality. That scan showed an incidental finding of multiple pulmonary nodules including a 10mm part-solid ground glass nodule (GGO) with a solid center in my lower right lobe.

My primary care physician was not too concerned, and it would have been easy for me to ignore it. However, I have a friend who had exactly this kind of a nodule discovered incidentally just a few years back and had eventually gotten it removed last year (as it had not gone away) and it turned out to be malignant. And because of this I followed up with a thoracic surgeon who told me to have a repeat scan in six months (he was also not too concerned initially and said it could be due to any number of benign reasons including sarcoidosis).

Six months later I have the repeat scan and the nodule was still there and had not significantly changed. However the radiologist report said it could represent “adenocarcinoma spectrum lesion” and my thoracic surgeon was now concerned it was cancer. I was stunned as I thought I should not be at risk for lung cancer as a never smoker.

My surgeon recommended segmentectomy and he said it would be taken out fully and my lung function would not be materially impacted as it was a very small piece of tissue that would be removed. I agreed first and then dilly-dallied and eventually got a second opinion and got the same conclusion. It was suspicious for cancer.

While still in a little bit of denial I did have the surgery early September and was still shocked to learn it was “minimally invasive adenocarcinoma” with a 4mm invasive component. Lymph nodes were negative and there was at least a 2cm margin. I believe I am fully cured from this although meeting with an oncologist soon to see what they think. I feel so fortunate and blessed that this was caught in the early stages. I do have to undergo periodic surveillance CTs to monitor my other nodules that are sub-5mm so far.

The doctors and nurses in this hospital (large academic center in Boston) were outstanding in their care.

I believe early screening and detection can really help - that is what saved me.