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Spot on Right lung

Doc,

My 31 year old daughter, who smokes, just told me that her chest x-ray showed a 5 cm spot on her right lung.

They want her to have a CAT Scan. She wants to wait until January when her insurance kicks in. I want her to have it now.

I know you can't, and proably shouldn't, diagnose over the internet but I'm worried.

What is the stastical probability that this spot could be malignant?

Would it hurt to wait until January? I worry about her health history since she's been smoking since about age 15 years old.

Plus, the fact that it is a spot on her right lung.

I am a registered nurse but I don't know a lot about this aspect of medicine.

I want to go ahead and pay for it myself. I don't feel very comfortable waiting.

What can you tell me?

                                                                                JimO
3 Responses
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242588 tn?1224271700
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
The statistical probability of lung cancer is dependent upon a number of factors: including age, years smoked and packs per day smoked.  Her daughter’s young age is very much in her favor but the long smoking history is not.  Medically, there is nothing to be lost while waiting until January, to do the CT scan.  In the meantime you and she should set about to locate every chest x-ray, not just x-ray reports, although they are better than nothing, that she has ever had for comparison with her current x-ray.  If this lesion was present in the past and is unchanged in size, for 2 years or more, it will, in all likelihood, be declared to be benign.

Also, if she is raising any sputum at this time, it should be collected, sent to the laboratory for culture and for cytology, which is a search for cancer cells.  The sputum should be cultured for fungi and tuberculosis (TB).
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
She was given a PPD and she scratched it and they couldn't read it.

So, they had her get an x-ray and they found a spot on her lung. She has no symptoms now.
                                                          JimO
Helpful - 0
170935 tn?1225371076
Hi there, hope you don't mind me asking but what other symptoms does she have that led to her having the chest xray?
Helpful - 0

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