questions for Dr. Heinrik

[football_fan]

I have a question for Dr. Heinrik. I would like to know if a pancoast tumor would show up on a cervicle spine mri? As you may have read in past post, that is my greatest fear. I had a clean ct scan in feb and started having "symptoms" in May. I was just wondering if I can absolutely eliminate that from my thought process, with a clean cervicle mri. I understand that nothing is absolute, but is it enough to put my mind at ease? Or should I fight for more test? I have a copy of the film on cd. My neurologist gave it to me. He didn't see anything and neither do i, but I'm soooo scared. Please respond...

[football_fan]

Thanks for the response. The images that I have look like they cover the lungs as well. There is a set of images that look like a frontal shot that includes the top 3rd of my lungs. Would a tumor have to be pretty big in that area to cause symptoms? Or would a very small well placed one do the same? Reason I ask is because the frontal image i mentioned earlier looks fine, but I wonder if something small was in there that I might be missing.

[HeinrikMD]

Hi,

How far down did the imaging go? A cervical MRI is an image of the neck. The Pancoast tumor occurs below the neck. If the image includes some thoracic vertebrae, then some abnormalities in this area can be observed. If you have some symptoms, then perhaps an investigation is in order. Stay positive.