ground glass nodule on lung

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joannaw81
joannaw81 Member Posts: 185 Member
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
on my mom's recent PET scan a ground glass nodule measuring 0.5 cm was dicovered. Doctor said not to worry, we should just watch it. How often nodules like that are malignant? should we be worried? with my mom's history any little thing like this one makes me wonder...any suggestions?

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  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    #2
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    odds are very good
    that this is benign. The reasoning goes like this: it is 5mm size, and PET is very good at discerning benign vs malignant. My goodness, I can see why you would be tempted to worry, with her history. When is the follow up scan?
  • ratface
    ratface Member Posts: 1,337 Member
    #3
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    Don't worry about it, great advice, really!
    I've got four of them in the 4mm to 9mm range. Got another on my thyroid. They find stuff when you start getting scanned. Some of it will scare the crap out of you, if you let it? It's really , really common, and most are not cancerous. Could be histoplasmosis, could be a bunch of other stuff unrelated to cancer. Been watching mine for three years now and I've wasted a heck of a lot of time in useless worry. Don't let it happen to either one of you, for the moment it doesn't mean a thing.
  • joannaw81
    joannaw81 Member Posts: 185 Member
    #4
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    ratface said:

    Don't worry about it, great advice, really!
    I've got four of them in the 4mm to 9mm range. Got another on my thyroid. They find stuff when you start getting scanned. Some of it will scare the crap out of you, if you let it? It's really , really common, and most are not cancerous. Could be histoplasmosis, could be a bunch of other stuff unrelated to cancer. Been watching mine for three years now and I've wasted a heck of a lot of time in useless worry. Don't let it happen to either one of you, for the moment it doesn't mean a thing.

    thank you guys for optimism
    yes my mom has a long history. on top of her long history, recently they though that she had more cancer in her tongue (MRI showed something with increased uptake) however biopsy was done and it was negative thank GOD! I worry a little bit since this was her 4th PET and it is the first time that there is something on her lung. Her next scan is in September. they want to watch both her tongue and lung nodule.
  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    #5
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    joannaw81 said:

    thank you guys for optimism
    yes my mom has a long history. on top of her long history, recently they though that she had more cancer in her tongue (MRI showed something with increased uptake) however biopsy was done and it was negative thank GOD! I worry a little bit since this was her 4th PET and it is the first time that there is something on her lung. Her next scan is in September. they want to watch both her tongue and lung nodule.

    joanna
    ground glass appearance is a pretty specific lung lesion. It is not correlated with metastatic cancer. If larger than 5 mm it has a definite correlation with certain lung cancers, which have cure rates of essentially 100 percent. Hard not to worry, but in this case I would go to another show, or a family reunion, or something......

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