Lung Mass

[Tybar]

I'm a 39 year old that has never smoked in my life. I had a cough that wouldn't go away for about a month and my doctor had a XRAy done and noticed some possible thickening and sent me for a CT Scan and the CT scan identified a 2cmx2cm mass in my upper lobe of my lung. I have a PET scan today. The cough symptoms have all but stopped. The Interenet is a good and bad thing in that all the research I look on lung mass always says cancer. Also, when I was about 16 I had phenomenon twice and Scarlet fever. I don't have cancer in any of my parents family.

I'm scared that it is cancer? I have a 2.5 year old and a baby on the way (Due in December). Please let me if this sounds like cancer?

[National Jewish]

A 2 cm mass is small by conventional standards and, assuming that it is the only abnormality on the CT scan, often referred to as a solitary nodule.  The odds are strongly in your favor that a nodule of this size, in a person of your age who has never smoked, is a benign lesion.  The combination of CT and PET scan may enable your doctors to declare the lesion to be benign, with a good degree of certainty.

You should obtain any and all previous chest x-rays, to determine if this lesion may have been present but smaller and not noticed years ago.  That would be helpful.

[usnvet]

hey tybar,my story goes like this. nodules on bottom of both lungs, very small like yours. pulmanary doc sent me for pet which came back positive like yours and it looked bad,was scared to death also. i was sent to thorasic surgeon at sloan kettering cancer center where he ordered biopsys.after a week of waiting it came back negative for cancer. then i had the second biopsy,sat on pins and needles for another week and it also came back negative.this is now over four years ago.i went for follow ups for 3 months, four months, six months, a year and a year again.the things are still there on my lungs with no change whatsoever. now i have been released from there and get checkups once a year at the pulmanary doc.anyhow, never give up hope.get the biopsy,its the only sure way to know.good luck!

[Tybar]

I just got results from PET and they showed some maligancy, I'm very scared! They referred me to a lung doctor. This makes no sense since I never smoked or don't have cancer in my family. Please give me some positive information!!

[Tybar]

I forgot to mention I'm a 39 year old MALE.