Scary CTA of Chest Findings - 1272706

thankyou3353
Posts:2

Hi! Thank you very much for creating and maintaining this site. I'm at 31 yo F. I have been experiencing frequent low grade fevers for the past 7 months with some of my CBC results being slightly off as well (in the WBC category). I've also had jaw pain for 3 years. My doctor thinks this may be related to a jaw infection (waiting to see new oral surgeon). However, the other day, symptoms flared up along with localized chest pain on the left side (she now thinks that's Costochondritis). There was concern of a blood clot in my lung. CT revealed this was not the case, but there were 2 other findings: 1. a hypervascular lesion in the left liver that was incompletely characterized. The report says it's most likely a benign lesion like a hemangioma or FNH - but the doctor is ordering a follow-up MRI, and 2. hazy, semisolid/ground glass density nodules in the right upper lobe measuring 7 x 8 mm, a solid pulmonary nodule measuring 6 x 6 mm, and a 4 x 2 mm nodule. They are clustered in the right upper lobe. It says the findings may be due to an infectious or inflammatory etiology. My questions are:

1. The GGN & larger sizes are really scaring me, but does the fact that they're clustered the way they are point more to an infection than cancer/ nodules that will become malignant? My grandmother died at a fairly young age from lung cancer, but she was a smoker. I don't have any chest infection symptoms like coughing/ pain breathing, etc. Could a common small infection without symptoms cause this?
2. It does say no pulmonary mass on the CT....but my other fear is still that this is cancer in my lung that spread to my liver. Does the fact that it says no current lung mass make that unlikely/ no?

Thank You!!!!

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JimC
Posts: 2753

Hi thankyou3353,

Welcome to GRACE, and thank you for your kind comments. I'm sorry to hear of these scan findings, and I understand your concern. It's pretty hard to tell what they might represent without further workup. As far as cancer, there are some factors which tend to point away from that diagnosis. As you say, an infectious/inflammatory process in the lung would more likely show clustered abnormalities than scattered. There are also typical features of lung nodules that suggest cancer, but the radiologist apparently does not feel your lung findings lead in that direction. As far as the liver lesion, many people have such benign lesions, which only show up when you look for something else. Since the lung nodules are pretty small, it is not likely (although not impossible) for this to represent a lung cancer metastasis.

GRACE is focused on patients with established cancer diagnoses, and many people have symptoms and findings which could be cancer or many other less disturbing conditions. Hopefully as your doctors continue your workup, they will be able to eliminate cancer as the cause and discover an easily treatable condition instead. For example, if an infection is suspected, a course of antibiotics may be prescribed which, if successful, may lead to a resolution of these issues.

Good luck.

JimC
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thankyou3353
Posts: 2

Hi JimC. Thank you so much for your response! I greatly appreciate it. I'm incredibly sorry to hear about your wife's battle.

I will keep you posted once I learn more, which I imagine will take a while of more scary waiting. I hope that you're having a wonderful weekend!