Spot on lung

[Sculpey5]

I had a Catscan done last Sept. in which they found a tiny spot on my lung - Dr. re-scanned in Feb. and told me it was stable.  He will re-scan again in Sept and then if it's still stable - do an annual scan.  My husband died last year of lung cancer and my mom passed away 2 months ago from metastic cancer (she was 75 yrs old).  Dr. doesn't even try to give me ideas on anything else this spot could be - the only comment was he did not know how long it's been there because that was my first catscan.   I do have scar tissue in the bottom of a lung he said probably from a past pneumonia.   My question:   Are there other things that this spot could be besides cancer ? Or is cancer the only thing that ever shows up besides scar tissue?

[DrNoopurMD]

Hi,

How old are you? There can be many reasons  for a spot in the lung which can be either due to some infection like tuberculosis and fungal infection of lung or noninfectious causes like lung cancer, pleural thickening or a benign lung nodule.
I would say if you are less than 40 and a nonsmoker, with no accompanying symptoms the chances of cancer are very low. I would suggest you to schedule an appointment with a pulmonary specialist and seek his opinion. Take care!

[al1953]

Listen, do some research on radiation exposure from Cat scans. Each one exposes you to a large amount of radiation and increases your chance of cancer 5-20 years down the road. You are more likely to get cancer from the scans than you are from the tiny spot on your lung! Even with your family history. Most doctors do not know a damn thing about radiation exposure from multiple CT scans. See the pulmonary specialist and see what he recommends. Maybe there is a test that does not use radiation to follow your spot: like an MRI. You may not need to be followed every year after you a few years. Many of these spots change extremely slowly or not at all. However, whatever you do, stop getting CT scans! They are dangerous and you absolutely do not need them for your TINY spot! Doctors can be very arrogant and full of themselves and do not have your best interest at heart or are just ignorant. Posting on this site was extremely smart on your part. Do your reseach on radiation and cat scans. God Bless you!