Adenocarcinoma with bac features stage 1V, treatment questions - 1272944

dnchck
Posts:1

I was dx in May of last year with Adeno with bac features-lepidic predominance 80% with acinar and papillary pattern consistent with previously named Bronchoalveolar carcinoma.I have had scans every three months and the last one was this past week. I have had no changes in my scans.The last two months my breathing, SOB has been worse so i"m a bit confused but happy with latest ct scan. My onco mentioned to me that it is hard to see my cancer because they consist of cloudy looking densities instead of solid tumors. She said this type of cancer is very slow growing, sometimes not really changing much in months, to several years and most always stays confined in the lungs. I have had no treatments as of yet because of the lack of growth that they can see. The largest area that she showed me is 2.5x1.6 cm of soft tissue density in my right lung. Does anyone has this same cancer and are you receiving treatment ? I read my report from my dec ct scan and it read that in my right lower lobe their is a cystic opacity 4.3 cm in size. Isn't that considered growth or is a cystic opacity different? She told me that is very difficult to measure my cancer in size because the cancer grows kind of like vines around your vessels. Does this make sense to any of you? So confused! I'm hoping that someone has the same type to give me some insight on my cancer and what to except down the road. Thank you so much for listening and prayers for everyone continuing to fight. Donna

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catdander
Posts:

Hi Donna,

Welcome to Grace. I'm so sorry you're living with this awful disease but also glad you're "living" with this disease. BAC isn't real common though the oncologist who began the site specializes in it so we have a lot of info on it. The links below are a recent set of videos by Dr. West on BAC and will give you a better understanding of this type of nsclc.

The wording in the scan report is likely just describing the type of cloudy area in the lung. The radiologists who read and write up the reports on scans are doctors who don't see patients and can use non specific language to describe something. It's up to your doctors to interpret the scan report so you might want to ask you onc if you want this answered.

An analogy Dr. West uses is to explain the difficulty in knowing size and even growth of BAC is it's like several cloudy days in a row, there all pretty much the same and it's difficult to tell the difference from one to another.

The good news is treatment can be given only when needed for quality of life, stop after a round of systemic therapy for months or years before undergoing another. Many people live an otherwise normal life by treating BAC as a chronic disease.

http://cancergrace.org/lung/2015/05/29/gcvl_lu-aa01_bronchioloalveolar_…
http://cancergrace.org/lung/2015/06/01/gcvl_lu-aa02_bac_myths_misconcep…
http://cancergrace.org/lung/2015/09/14/gcvl_lu-f03_indolent_lung_cancer…
http://cancergrace.org/lung/2015/10/02/gcvl_lu-f08_optimal_systemic_bac…

All the best,
Janine