My Wife 49 years old diagnosed with Squamous lung cancer on 4-1-16 , she has a 7.4 cm mass top of her right lung, pet scan showed several lymph nodes lighting up , Superior Mediastinum 2.6 , Right Hilar 3.9 , Subcarinal 3.4 and Right Retroclavicular 3.0, they did a needle biopsy on the Retroclavicular lymph node on 5-6-16 and it came back clean, we met with her Surgeon and he scheduled her for an Ebus and he also said that if that looked good he would check the lymph nodes in her neck and clavicle. We understand if everything comes back clean then she would be scheduled for surgery , Our question is what is the significance of the different lymph nodes if they were to find evidence of cancer in one or more of them? would this exclude her from surgery or would she need to do Chemo first? Also she is more then six weeks out from her diagnosis still with no treatment , is this time frame normal ? Thanks
Significance of Lymph node involvement - 1274073
stevea
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Reply # - May 17, 2016, 05:32 PM
Hi stevea,
Hi stevea,
The presence of nodes which test positive for cancer determines the staging of the cancer, which in turn dictates the treatment, although stage III lung cancer treatment provokes the most controversy among thoracic oncologists. GRACE's Dr. Weiss has written a very thorough post "An Introduction to Lung Cancer" It's all very helpful, but the section on "What is Staging" contains a good description of the different type of nodes which can be involved, and how that influences the choice of treatment. Nodal involvement can cause many oncologists to recommend chemoradiation instead of surgery.
Although I'm sure it seems like a very long time, six weeks is not an unusually long time frame within which to complete the staging process and begin treatment.
JimC
Forum moderator
Reply # - May 18, 2016, 06:01 AM
Hi Stevea.
Hi Stevea.
I know when my wife was diagnosed with lung cancer, those first few weeks of time between the diagnosis and the first treatment, when the doctors were initially analyzing the situation, seemed agonizingly slow, with a sense of anxiety that seemed unrelenting. But now that we are a year away, my wife and I have come to appreciate the thoughtfulness that the "tumor team" takes in trying to determine the best course of treatment at each step. I also have found the information on this site (and others) to be extremely helpful in better understanding the options so I could ask the right questions of the oncologist.
Wishing you and your wife all the best, and hoping that whatever treatment determined to be most appropriate is effective, long-lasting, and brings swift healing of body and spirit.