About 3 years ago a spot was found on my moms left lung. It was close to the pulmonary artery and possibly connected to both lobes. This made getting a biopsy difficult. She first went for a bronchoscopy sweep. That came back negative, but they weren't confident they reached the area. She then went for a needle biopsy(which in talking to her current doctors should never have been done) that came back atypical suspicious. Again didn't get a good sample.
Even though we never were able to find out what it was. It was decided to treat with SBRT. Fast forward to now at her 2.5 yr scan post treatment it looks like there might be some growth. A PET scan lit up minimally (doctors words 3.5) They want to try again to get a biopsy with the GPS method. Does anyone have any experience with this? Is it safe? If it is cancer can it be re-radiated? Surgery is not an option.
Thank you,
Nicole
GPS guided biopsy - 1290774
nicole80
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Reply # - May 26, 2017, 03:46 AM
Hi Nicole,
Hi Nicole,
I'm sorry to hear of your mom's possible recurrence. The guided biopsy technique to which you refer was discussed pretty thoroughly in this thread: http://cancergrace.org/forums/index.php?topic=4400.0 As you can see, while it's not foolproof, the technique may increase the chances of a definitive biopsy.
Although the preference generally is to not re-irradiate the some spot, under certain curcumstances it may be a good choice. This discussion by Dr. Loiselle may be helpful: http://cancergrace.org/radiation/2011/07/14/repeating-chest-rt/
Good luck with with further workup on this finding, and please let us know if you have further questions.
JimC
Forum moderator