Good and Bad News today

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Puggle
Puggle Member Posts: 88 Member
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Hubby received the results from his 2nd post treatment PET scan today. His initial scan was in June before treatment, he had one 2 months out and now 5 months out. Due to kidney issues he cannot have the contrast anymore.

Anyway.. the good news is that the tumor area is totally clear but they want him to go in for a bronchoscopy because they are concerned about an abnormality on his lung. This spot has been there since they did the initial scan and the doctors said they weren't worried about it but wanted to just watch it. From the new scan it looks like it got a bit bigger so they want to be safe and check it out. Because he can't get the contrast anymore the RO wants him to have this procedure done. He said it could just be an abnormal bunch of blood vessels but it's hard to say without the contrast on the scan.

I would have thought that if there was an abnormality on his lung that the chemo he received would have affected it as well but the RO said not necessarily. We are scheduled to see the Thoracic surgeon next week so hopefully we can get this scheduled soon to find out what is going on.

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  • Daddisgrl
    Daddisgrl Member Posts: 116
    #2
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    Good luck

    Good luck
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #3
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    Thoughts and Prayers....
    Coming your way....

    As for the chemo, I'd tend to believe what was said (in my unprofessional opinion)... That would be from the thought that lung cancer or some cancer other than head and throat more than likely would have different types of chemo.

    I can't say that for sure as I don't go on that forum and no personal knowledge, but I know a few on here that have unfortunately also had or are dealing with lung cancer...so they will probably chime in.

    Hopefully, they'll be able to perform some type of biopsy of tissue to confirm non-cancerous tissues and or rule out the other.

    Best,
    John
  • ratface
    ratface Member Posts: 1,337 Member
    #4
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    Skiffin16 said:

    Thoughts and Prayers....
    Coming your way....

    As for the chemo, I'd tend to believe what was said (in my unprofessional opinion)... That would be from the thought that lung cancer or some cancer other than head and throat more than likely would have different types of chemo.

    I can't say that for sure as I don't go on that forum and no personal knowledge, but I know a few on here that have unfortunately also had or are dealing with lung cancer...so they will probably chime in.

    Hopefully, they'll be able to perform some type of biopsy of tissue to confirm non-cancerous tissues and or rule out the other.

    Best,
    John

    lung spots
    I have four of them. Yes they scared the hell out of me initially but the truth is there are at least a dozen different reasons why they can be there and chemo would not change them since those reasons are not cancer related. A common reason in the Midwest is exposure to contaminated water from bird droppings, I think the medical name is histoplasmosis???? You might also want to read up on a procedure called "VATS" Video assisted thoracic surgery, to be prepared with your thoracic surgeon consult. By the way, my lung spots have remained unchanged for three years. NED is great but sometimes we have previous anomalies uncovered by the scanning and it might take multiple scans to really be somewhat sure. Hang in there.
  • D Lewis
    D Lewis Member Posts: 1,581 Member
    #5
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    ratface said:

    lung spots
    I have four of them. Yes they scared the hell out of me initially but the truth is there are at least a dozen different reasons why they can be there and chemo would not change them since those reasons are not cancer related. A common reason in the Midwest is exposure to contaminated water from bird droppings, I think the medical name is histoplasmosis???? You might also want to read up on a procedure called "VATS" Video assisted thoracic surgery, to be prepared with your thoracic surgeon consult. By the way, my lung spots have remained unchanged for three years. NED is great but sometimes we have previous anomalies uncovered by the scanning and it might take multiple scans to really be somewhat sure. Hang in there.

    What he said...
    I have two spots on my lungs. They showed up on my first diagnostic PET-CT and they've been seen on my two followup scans. I've spent a lot of time digging in the dirt in the desert southwest, and I'm thinking it might be Valley Fever scarring.

    Deb

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