Met to lung possibly

Ruthmomto4 · February 2016

I am sorry I only come here to ask for help and to be talked off the ledge so to speak but I honestly have no place else to go. So my husband after having his CEA go from 2.24 to 4.88 in november ins refused a pet ct, covered a regular ct scan which showed nothing. Except a reactive cardiophrenic angle node. Since it was Christmas we let the appointment go to last week where his CEA went to 5.18 he has a hernia near his liver resection incision and was having pain so the dr orders another ct scan since he needs it for the surgeon to repair the hernia. stupid me never saw this coming they found a 7mm cluster nodule at the base of the left lung. They also mentioned subcentimeter hypo-densities in the renal area to small to characterize.

his doctor told him he did not think it was anything to worry about in his lung that it would come back in his liver first and not to worry, but he would force the insurance to do a pet ct. I call bull poop on that because his liver surgeon told us anything that appears after the cancer is always cancer. Then he said it was too small and too risky to do surgery on even if it is cancer. I know his best chance for more time is surgery, do they remove lung mets? I am so distraught this has been a horrible month he has had two nasty flu/cold since the middle of January, in fact he is sick right now and i am so worried about him, any advice is greatly appreciated.

impactzone · February 2016

I have had 4 thoracic

I have had 4 thoracic surgeries and am doing well after 10 years. Lung mets kept popping up and I was able to get surgery at Stanford. Small mets will not show up on PET. I had one lobectomy and the other three were wedge resections where they just took a small part. I suggest your find a thoracic surgeon who is connected to a near cancer center and get his/her opinion.

Best wishes

Chip

beaumontdave · February 2016

i can tell you my experience

I'm sorry you have to go through this, but many have, and it is endurable. I had CT scans every 4 months in 2015, and each time they found things that disturbed the docs, so they ordered PET scans each time, with a negative result on each. Your liver surgeon shouldn't be making such broad generalizations, things grow and shrink and change in a body. The spots they're worried about with your husband are very small, and can be treated other ways than surgery, I imagine. Many here can tell you more about the options, like ablation, and if your hubby is compromised by illness lately, surgery wouldn't be a first choice. Have faith and hang in there Ruth...........................................Dave

JanJan63 · February 2016

I was just told on Friday

I was just told on Friday morning that spots they've been watching with ct scans that haven't grown since they first found them are mets. I had a PET scan to make sure. I've already seen a thoracic surgeon and a radiologist oncologist. The thoracic surgeon will not do surgery because he figures I'd only have about a 30% chance of surviving the surgery due to my blood clot history and being on blood thinners. I can't do chemo because it's what gave me the blood clot to start with. My only option other than waiting to see if it grows is to do radiation. It's a radiation that's more pinpointed than the radiation I had originally for the colon cancer. It's supposed to be less difficult to deal with than regular radiation.

He said that for many years surgery has been considered to be the best route unless a person is frail or has other medical issues. He said that radiating them this way has only been around for five years but has been very successful. As far as I can tell it isn't a different type of radiation other than being more specific to the area. He think this is what more people will do in the future rather than having surgery.

Jan

vtspa6 · February 2016

My husband found out he had

My husband found out he had rectal cancer and a month later learned that it had already metastisized (sp) to the lungs. The cancer skipped the liver and went straight to the lungs. He has too many spots for surgery, they are in all lobes. He gets C scans to check the progress of chemo, and the Onc. said once your cancer has spread there is no use getting a Pet scan. Don't know if this info will help, I am guessing everyone cancer is different.

Ruthmomto4 · February 2016

Thank you so much everyone!

i can't tell you how much your information has helped. We will see what the scans say and make our decisions from there. He will be 6 years from diagnosis next month, he went stage 4 two years ago.

UncleBuddy · February 2016

Ruthmomto4 said:
Thank you so much everyone!
i can't tell you how much your information has helped. We will see what the scans say and make our decisions from there. He will be 6 years from diagnosis next month, he went stage 4 two years ago.

lungs

My brother has several tumors in both lungs. The thoracic surgeon said if his heart wasn't compromised and he didn't have so many clotting issues, he would have done the surgery. I believe he has 7 tumors in the lungs and one on the liver. I'd get a 2nd opinion and find out if surgery is possible. I agree that making such a broad statement is not a good idea. Each person is different.

Lin

zx10guy · February 2016

I wouldn't be so quick to

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the doctor who I assume is the oncologist. He may be correct about the spot being nothing. The liver surgeon saying anything popping up after having cancer is cancer is a bit much. I had an indeterminate 10 mm hypodense lesion pop up within the anterior midportion of my left kidney. I immediately thought maybe this is a metastasis. I met with my oncologist and he immediately said not to worry about it. It's most likely a cyst as he said it's common for people with hemangiomas to develop cysts in their kidney(s). He didn't schedule any additional follow ups or scans for it. I had to trust him. At my annual yearly scan, the radiology report stated the lesion was still there in my kidney but this time the radiologist described it as a small cyst instead of a lesion. At my 3 year post diagnosis CT scan last month, the radiologist reported the cyst is now gone.

Ruthmomto4 · February 2016

Pet scan is Wednesday,

Pet scan is Wednesday, results on Friday. Since this is not me I guess it's easy for me to say this but honestly for me waiting is worse then just facing it. It was the liver surgeon who said that about anything showing up after cancer is always cancer. They had biopsied my husband's liver mets but they obviously missed because the biopsy was negative but he did have them it was confirmed after the resection.

I got the letter today from ins initially saying they denied the pet scan because the nodule was under 8mm but the oncologist got them to reverse it. I think what I am simply hoping for with this scan is that nothing else shows up, I think this cluster nodule is most likely going to be too small to show up. Since it totals 7mm but it's a few small spots that make the size. i would be more hopeful if his CEA had not gone up to 5.18 from a 1.34 last year at this time.

beaumontdave · February 2016

One of the reasons for one of

One of the reasons for one of my pet scans last year was because a node in my chest was 11 mm when normal is 6-10mm, so yeah they do scans when things are that small. Ruth, you don't have to qualify your fear and pain here, I agonized much more through the 6+ years of my wife's brain tumor than I ever did over my own colon cancer, watching someone you love, go through that hell is far worse, in ways, then bearing it yourself.............................Dave

Met to lung possibly

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