Nodule surrounded by area of fibrotic scarring - 1258120

I'd have to say that not enough is known to say that it significantly shifts the risk up or down. The fact that there's scarring around it suggests that the entire area is affected by a benign inflammatory process, but there is also some evidence, though somewhat controversial and in my mind not especially compelling, that cancers can arise from areas of benign fibrosis (scarring). There is even an entity called a "scar carcinoma", but I think that the cause-effect relationship between an area of scar and a cancer in that area remains too unclear to really say anything conclusive.

That's really a non-answer, but as I say, I think an extensive discussion of the research on this question would still be summed up with "we don't know".

It's still very reassuring to see a nodule remain stable for a long time, which is very uncharacteristic of cancer but exactly what benign fibrosis/scarring should do. Good luck.

-Dr. West

My question would be, why are they waiting nine months instead of 3 or 6? I have radiation scarring and after 2.5 years have just been diagnosed with a local recurrence. It's in the radiated/scarred area and abutting the pleura. I'm hoping for surgery to remove the lobe, but going through the process now to see if it can be done.
Wishing you the best. Take care, Judy

While looking for something else, I came across an article on scar carcinoma. Lung scarring due to previous illnesses can cause adenocarcinoma lung cancer. I was going to ask if any of the doctors here have had any experience with it. I don't have the link, it's on the other site I post at. Good luck to you.
Take care, Judy

I don't, and I think it's a very difficult issue, because I'd consider it impossible to really know if a cancer actually developed from an area of benign scar or was just in the same area coincidentally, or perhaps it was a cancer all along and grew very slowly. We know that it's possible to do a biopsy and just happen to miss the part that shows cancer, so I really wonder if it's sometimes concluded that the cancer grew out of scar tissue, when perhaps there's just benign fibrosis and cancer mixed together, and the first biopsy shows the fibrosis, a subsequent one showing cancer. I just don't know of any real evidence of a causal relationship between scar tissue and the development of a subsequent adenocarcinoma or other lung cancer from that area.

-Dr. West

Thanks for coming back to answer Dr. West. I was thinking along the same lines for myself. Maybe the SRS and chemo just missed and it grew back after a while. We'll never know, the great unknown LC!
Take care, Judy