7mm spot on lungs after breast cancer, has anyone else been down this road?

cabbott said:

Lung Cancer and Breast Cancer Survivor
Yep, I have both of the above kinds of cancer. Fortunately, both have been stage one and so far I'm doing much better than I ever thought possible after a cancer diagnosis. But then, as Joe mentioned, a cancer diagnosis (even a stage 4 diagnosis) is not the death sentance for many survivors that I orignally assumed it was. Check out the discussion board for breast cancer and you will find tons of folks with stage 4 cancer leading pretty normal lives, so don't panic no matter what your diagnosis turns out to be.

My story started with a breast cancer diagnosis. The mammogram showed some calcifications that after several months of tests turned out to be near two spots of invasive breast cancer. I'm not built very large and when the lumpectomy and biopsy turned out to both be cancer and have "dirty" margins, I had to have a mastectomy. That was followed with tamoxifen as I was estrogen receptor postive. Tamoxifen messed with my cycles leading my student oncologist (under the supervision of a leader in the field) to worry that I had ovarian cancer. Nope, I didn't, but they don't put those parts back after doing the biopsy, so I then went on an amoratase inhibitor (exemestane aka aromasin). Tamoxifen gave me a couple of hot flashes and a few more weeks between cycles, but other than the headache I had the first two days (easily cured with Tylenol), it was not a problem. I'm regular at taking pills and took it every day at breakfast without fail. The surgical menapause paired with exemestane was considerably more extreme in terms of side effects, but still totally tolerable as far as I was concerned. I wanted to do all I could to raise my odds of a long event-free life, but I must say I definately get hot flashes and flushes now. It was about every 20 minutes the first year, but that was back in 2004. Now I notice them daily, but I don't wake up at night any more or sweat quite as much. I have learned to dress in layers that come off quickly and to drink cool water as needed, but I think the flashes have slacked off some too. The exemestane is known to sometimes cause joint pain. I had a major problem with inflamed toe joints--don't laugh! I felt like the Little Mermaid and really didn't want to get out of bed in the morning or walk across the room after sitting because of the ouchies. But after getting some great orthodics followed by some advice by a nurse practioner to get my Vitamin D level checked, the ouchies disappeared for good. I was really low on Vitamin D in spite of taking in 4 glasses of milk, a multi with D, taking calcium with D, and being fairly active outdoors. Cancer patients are often dangerously low on D and often have joint pain. For 6 weeks I was on the prescription D and now I'm okay with the gel tabs containing D in fish oil. Every time my feet hurt (only once in a great while now) I remember to take those gel tabs and the pain is gone in a heartbeat. So yes, those cancer drugs have side effects, but never forget those side effects have cures too. The best effect of the cancer drugs is that they keep breast cancer at bay.

Unfortunately, the drugs that work on breast cancer don't work on other kinds of cancer like lung cancer. When I developed a spot on my lung, the doctor was surprised. I had a kind of breast cancer not likely to metasticize. Because of that, they let it go for 3 months to see if it was growing. This is standard procedure for lung cancer because it is a major thing to open up a lung for a biopsy. Besides, lung cancer tends to grow fairly slowly compared with the more aggressive sorts of breast cancer. When a radiologist determined that just maybe my spot had slightly increased in size, my oncologist asked for a biopsy. He just didn't think I had stage 4 breast cancer for sure based on my first diagnosis. You know from past experience that it isn't cancer until the pathologist sees it under a microscope. Well, sometimes they have to run even more tests to tell what kind of cancer it is. I was sent home after the first lung operation with a diagnosis of stage 4 breast cancer because it was adnocarcinoma, a kind of cancer that looked like the same kind of breast cancer I had had earlier. Further testing indicated that it was adnocarcinoma of the lung, stage 1, with BAC tendencies, not adnocarcinoma of the breast traveled to the lung. Like my breast cancer, it grows fairly slowly and surgery is often curative. So I had to go back to the surgeon and have a second lung operation in 10 days. Fun! Fun! But that was back in 2006 and I've been doing great ever since.

So what can you do? Joe gave great advice. Take great care of your health. Exercise, eat right, get as healthy as you can, and make your appointments for all rechecks. The healthier you are the more aggressive treatment you can stand. There are many ways to biopsy a lung if that turns out to be needed. If you have a spot too far down or to the center to be reached from above, look for a thoracic specialist that can do VATS procedures. Even when they are going in for what they are sure is cancer, understand that it isn't anything until the pathologist finishes all the tests. The doctors keep close tabs on us survivors. Many times a spot turns out to be something other than cancer. Sometimes it is a fungus, sometimes it is a small bit of scar tissue. One breast cancer survivor operated on the same week I was operated on threw my surgeon for a loop by having a bit of TB in her lung. Some lung diseases that could cause a spot are better than lung cancer. Some are not. Many small spots of cancer may take care of themselves so I've read, but sometimes they need medical and surgical assistance to get out of there. I refuse to wait and see what might happen in hopes that I have the kind that will disappear on its own. I'm a bit of a romatic, but I don't have my head in the clouds when it comes to cancer. Cancer diagnosis is serious stuff. But at the same time, I've learned to do what the doctors recommend and I'm getting somewhat better at not panicking. There are lots of places on the internet that discuss what the current gold standard for treatment is and what to do about side effects. One of those places is right here. Post any questions you have and let us know your progress. Good luck!

C. Abbott