Two spots found on lungs

[tiff27]

My husband had pneumonia about a month ago, hes better now, but he has been hacking up a lot of Flem (phlegm) and it wasen't getting any better so the doc sent him for a CT scan and it showed two spots on his lungs. They told him they need to do biaposys on them to know more but they told him there is a possiably it might be lung cancer. He is 34 years of age and has never smoked but he does chew. Is it possiably that it's not lung cancer? What else could it be? If it is lung cancer what are his chances of survival. We have two daughters and a baby on the way,I'm so scared..

[National Jewish]

It is possible that the 2 spots are not lung cancer.  In a non-smoking 34-year-old man it is highly likely that these 2 spots are not cancer.  If they are in the area of the pneumonia, they could even be patches of slowly resolving infection.  The densities and other characteristics of these 2 spots on the CT scan should enable your husband’s doctor to venture an opinion about whether or not these spots are cancer.  If they show characteristics routinely seen with cancer, biopsies may be appropriate.  Otherwise, your husband should not rush to have biopsies done.  At your husband's age, these spots are more likely to be the result of infection, such as his recent pneumonia or a prior infection.

In the next 10 to 14 days there could be a change in size of the spots.  During this time it could be helpful to evaluate these spots further by comparing this CT scan to previous x-rays that may have shown these 2 spots some time ago.  Allowing this short time to gather further information will have no impact on the outcome.

Good luck.

[AfricanGrey]

My grandmother has had a spot on her lung for 20 years, they just kept watching it.  She is now 96.  A spot on the lungs does not mean lung cancer, that is just one of the many things it could be.  The fact that he is not a smoker increases the chances that it could be one of the many other things.

[jeni_c]

I too have two spots on my lungs. They called them nodules. I am doing Cat Scans on them every 6 months to make sure no growth has been detected. I was told that people live with this with out any problems. Just keep your head heald high and take it ine day at a time.

Jenn

[Citizen T]

I dont understand why they don't perform a PET scan.  You must be being seen at a highly for-profit institution

[blueyes1127]

I had a standard chest xray in a hospital in November due to Bronchitis as well as a CT because they wanted to make sure I didnt have a pulmonary blood clot  since my blood pressure kept going up ( they didnt consider that i was scared as hell as to why they needed to do all this xray's/ct's on me so maybe thats why my blood pressure kept racing haha!)Anyway it showed no clots but 2 small nodules in my lung...one doc acted all serious, the next doc was more "normal" about it...just explained that it can very well be nothing but you have to do the follow up scans to be positive...which is the smartest thing to do if you think about it. I am 26 years old and a smoker for the past 6 years .... so i went crazy with worry...searching the internet all over for "2 lung nodules" haha.... They told me to get another scan in 6 months...which is May. The thing which helped me calm down a bit was that about 2 weeks after I had the scans done in November, my boss had a CT on her stomach and they detected a nodule in her lung. She is an extremely mild smoker... what they call "social" (the type who can go a month or more without needing or wanting to smoke etc)..and she is 30 years old. That helped me calm down a bit...since it didnt make me feel like what I had heard was as "out of the ordinary"...although I know I still need to get the scans done in May...she was told get a scan in Feb and she is going for it tomorrow. Best thing to do is to try calm down (easier said than done i know!!) ...my take on it was hope for the best...if God forbid something is there, its already there, so we cant wish/hope it away....we can just try our hardest to fight back...but please God we're all lucky :). And to Jen...I saw your old post when you first spotted your nodules...the night I came home from the hospital when I learned of mine...and I want to thank you for putting your problem out on here...cause just reading yours and seeing that I wasnt the only person with this thing happening, meant the world to me and helped me calm down so much! How did your new scan do? Good luck to ALL of us.

[tiff27]

my husband went to a pulmonologist and that doc told him his lymph nodes are swollen so they are treating it like an infection and they put him on anitibotics and in one month they are going to do a full body CT scan to see if the lymph nodes have changed. We are hoping it's just a bad infection

[timbluejim]

Hi! I was just told 2 days ago That a nodule was found on my right lung. I had a very bad itchy throat which was making me cough a lot. Then I noticed I was feeling fatigued and sometimes a little short of breath. My doctor thought it was just a respiratory infectoin that seems to not want to let go (about 5 weeks now). But as a precaution ordered a chest xray to rule out pneumonia. I had that Wednesday and no pneumonia but a nodule on my right lung around the 7th rib. Talk about panic. I do not smoke but live with a husband who smokes 2.5 packs a day. I am panic stricken that I could have lung cancer. But I must telll you all. It is a comfort to know that a nodule does not automatically mean lung cancer. I will cling to that hope. My cat scan is this coming Monday at 9:40 pm. I hope that I know something by Wednesday next week.
But thanks again for giving me hope!!!

[blueyes1127]

timbluejim...I just wanted to let you know that I understand where you are coming from....even more so because you are not a smoker and I am...i have had to deal with the acceptance that if this IS something, then i did it to myself, and you are someone who is passive and did nothing to cause it. I know that must be frustrating, I hate myself every day for ever starting this horrible habit. To give you a ray of hope...my boss had her ct scan come back fine...and she was told by the cancer doc that her nodule is so small there is no worry and it hasnt grown
I have searched the internet like a wild man since Nov and I have come to realize, you should TRY not to worry(easy to say by someone who is still worrying right now haha) I wont lie....hearing about Dana Reeve recently made me go berserk in my mind, thinking all sorts of terrible things and renewed my thoughts of looking online....I know few people ever say this but ...I hope that I had some bad chest infection as a child haha...or since...which caused these nodules...I was told that I could have been born with them....so what you have to do is continue to be strong and just keep your spirits up. Believe me I know how it feels to hear what you heard...it literally knocks the wind out of you...but after days of feeling paralyzed by it ....seriously I am 26 years old and I felt like I had no future left...like someone had told me I was dying in 6 months...what has worked for me is...my next scan is in May...so I have just been living towards May..to be honest somedays I just totally forget about it, which is GOOD....I hope most people can be better than me and not even think of it ever...but if how I feel is normal...then I think all of us think about it at some point whether we want to or not....how can you not haha! The key to feeling more calm is to remember that almost ALL the time lung nodules are harmless....we hear so much about cancer in today's society that we naturally jump to that conclusion...but they are usually nothing....you have to remember that....worry at this point does us no good other than to make us nervous wrecks for the months we have to wait for new tests.....believe me I am going through it now....we need to find some comfort in that most nodules are just annoying things that occur...NOT cancer...my boss comes from a family with a very strong cancer history, she is a cancer surivor herself (Melanoma) and her father just passed away from cancer, and her lung nodule was seen as being not the least bit dangerous.....On a bit of a down note, just in case any of you were worrying like I have.....I have asked around and looked into it, and if ...God Forbid...any of us are given a diagnosis different from what we all want to hear, the treatment for "the awful answer" is amazingly better than it ever was ....we ALL have hope and we ALL have strength in each other...if anyone needs to just vent I am here for you....lord knows I have done my fair share of venting heh

[timbluejim]

Thank you for your words blueeyes1127. I was worrying like crazy. I was even crying at work when alone. But you are right it can be so many other things and not just cancer.
Today is now Friday and I found out Wednesday what it was (99% sure). I have bilateral pneumonia.Initially the doctors ruled that out because I had no clinical signs of it and the xray was negative for it. They were surprised in finding the nodule.
When I got the cat scan 5 days later I had more nodules in both lungs rather than just one. And was now showing signs of the pneumonia.
So I hate to say this, but in my case the nodule was a blessing. It forced the doctors to search further. Had the nodule not been there I would have just thought it was a respiratory infection and it would have gotten much worse.
I am now on antibiotics and need to get another cat scan a month from now. There is still that small possibility that I still have the nodule, possibly cancer, but I have been given hope.
Please do not apologize for your lenghty letter. It gives hope to others. It is always GOOD to express your concerns and to be reassured by others.

[syljoy]

I had a ct scan done in Oct. and discovered there was a strange spot on one of my lungs.  The doctor ordered another one this month so I had one done Thurs.  I am anxiously awaiting the results which I will find out Tues, the 11th.  The last few months I have felt tired (absolutely no energy) and sometimes my muscles are so sore I can hardly move.  This is so unlike me because I have always had a bundle of energy all my life.  I have also had chest pains so bad I had to go to the emergeny room (3 months ago). They found nothing wrong in the heart area. Another symptom I've experieced besides the chest pains and general fatigue is...coughing up faint traces of blood  I wouldn't be so worried about the spot on my lungs if my family didn't have a history of cancer.  I have lost 3 Aunts, 2 cousins, and my mother to cancer.  They all smoked and I have never smoked but I understand that second hand smoke is just as harmful. I have pleaded with my daughter for years to quit smoking but to no avail. She has two children that are exposed to her second hand smoke.  The message I'm trying to get across is ..if you smoke..PLEASE QUIT NOW.

[usnvet]

i had  spots on my lungs(nodules) found during a cat scan, was sent for a pet scan and they showed uptake(they are hot).ENDED UP HAVING 2 BIOPSYS AT CANCER CENTER. THEY ARE BENIGN,yet they are inflamed. i have not smoked in years.i have had 4 follow ups over 3 years and am fine except for sinusitis and bronchitis. false positives are not uncommon with pet scans. the gold standard is the biopsy. good luck
usnvet

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