Lung biopsy clear and liver ??

simba99
simba99 Member Posts: 3
in Colorectal Cancer #1

Im a very healthy  65 year old  and a diver and ship captain  three years ago i had a colon resection very small   no chemo  no radiation nothing

 

recently i went for my check up  my CEA had gone from 1-3.5 which is still in normal range  ( what cab effect cea besiudes cancer?)

 

 

CT scan showed one spot on lung and two tiny spots on liver

 

had biopsy on lung   was clear  no cancer

 

now they want to do liver biopsy    is there a chance ITS NOT CANCER   what else could it be   i dont know if it was there before   i had never had a ct scan before

 

 

Comments

  • NewHere
    NewHere Member Posts: 1,427 Member
    #2
    Welcome To The Boards

    Sorry you are here, but a good board to be at.  (And I am a diver also :) )  Anyway, CEA can be affected by a few things, smoking being one.

    Take a look here

    http://csn.cancer.org/node/298476

    For a recent discussion on CEA which has some good information

    As to the CT Scan, it may be nothing still on the liver, including just a cyst or other item.  I have had scans before, but some of the more recent scans "saw" a bit more than prior ones, but the oncologist and radiologist all said they seem to be nothing (and not mets from my colon cancer.)  Had also some things on lungs, same story, nothing of concern yet.

    You may want to have someone else check the scan for a second opinion.  Have you had colonscopies since the surgery?  How often are you monitored?  How big are the spots and is it worthwhile waiting and doing another scan?  For me (since I had Stage III C with heavy lymph node involvement), I would seriously consider a biopsy if my doctors said they felt it was time to do so based on their concerns.

  • simba99
    simba99 Member Posts: 3
    #3
    NewHere said:

    Welcome To The Boards

    Sorry you are here, but a good board to be at.  (And I am a diver also :) )  Anyway, CEA can be affected by a few things, smoking being one.

    Take a look here

    http://csn.cancer.org/node/298476

    For a recent discussion on CEA which has some good information

    As to the CT Scan, it may be nothing still on the liver, including just a cyst or other item.  I have had scans before, but some of the more recent scans "saw" a bit more than prior ones, but the oncologist and radiologist all said they seem to be nothing (and not mets from my colon cancer.)  Had also some things on lungs, same story, nothing of concern yet.

    You may want to have someone else check the scan for a second opinion.  Have you had colonscopies since the surgery?  How often are you monitored?  How big are the spots and is it worthwhile waiting and doing another scan?  For me (since I had Stage III C with heavy lymph node involvement), I would seriously consider a biopsy if my doctors said they felt it was time to do so based on their concerns.

    thanks a lot and

    i feel great  totally active  and my colon cancer did nopt get into lymph nodes      said i didnt need any chemo anything    only 14% of it coming back

     

    this was my first  ct scan   all my blood work normal     butsaw these so called spots      lung biopsy clear    

     

      so i hopeful no liver cancer    do you know the likeyhood of this ?/   anyone else ?

  • NewHere
    NewHere Member Posts: 1,427 Member
    #4
    simba99 said:

    thanks a lot and

    i feel great  totally active  and my colon cancer did nopt get into lymph nodes      said i didnt need any chemo anything    only 14% of it coming back

     

    this was my first  ct scan   all my blood work normal     butsaw these so called spots      lung biopsy clear    

     

      so i hopeful no liver cancer    do you know the likeyhood of this ?/   anyone else ?

    Be Careful of Stats

    Be careful of going solely by statistics, some are outdated.  And some can make you feel "down" if not in your favor.  From what I have seen here and elsewhere (and I am sure others will add more to this, some serious help on this board with information and support), Liver mets from Colon Cancer happens and that will usually be the first place it shows if it is going to happen.  In other words, mets showing in the lungs before the liver is rare.  Again, this is subject to what I recall so take it with a grain of salt.

    Sounds like the 14% was the number you were given for recurrance based on your particular diagnosis?  Based on my diagnosis the general numbers indicate a 50-60% chance of reocurrance/spread, which is knocked down to about 25-30% after my chemo.  I try to move past those numbers, because they do not give me a warm, fuzzy feeling :)

  • beaumontdave
    beaumontdave Member Posts: 1,280 Member
    #5
    There's certainly a chance

    There's certainly a chance it's not cancer. If this was your first scan they are going to look at the odd stuff like cysts and whatnot that we all have in different parts of our bodies. At my one year scan after liver resection, the radialogist says I've got fluid in the right lung and an enlarged node at my lung, 11mm[normal he says is 6-10]. So I get a PET scan and it's negative. At three months, the CT shows the same sort of stuff, so a PET again, then at seven months, the same. All in the name of being careful. My point being, don't presume the worst[ if that's possible] or you can spend a long time stressing over a lot of nothing, like I did. A cea of 3.5 is still low in my experience, presuming it's even a good indicator of anything for you.  Hope it turns out well, let us know............Dave

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