A little background. In June of this year, my mom had an area light up on pet in her left lung. Nodule was in a bad location near pulmonary artery. She had a bronchoscopy and (risky) biopsy, both came back negative, but because of the location doctors weren't sure they got enough of a sample and still suspected cancer. She was offered sbrt and had 5 treatments ending September 3rd. She had a follow up ct 2 weeks ago. treated area looks good, but a new spot has shown up on her right lung. Her radiation oncologist called this evening and described it as a nodular infiltrates (possibly pneumonia), but would have to speak to a pulmonologist and get back to us. My mom has no symptoms of pneumonia. Well you can imagine the fear he has left us with after what we thought was the road to recovery. Can anyone explain this new terminology? Can a new cancer show up in just 3 months?
Thank you,
Nicole
New spot - 1267389
nicole80
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Reply # - December 2, 2014, 09:50 PM
Hi Nicole,
Hi Nicole,
I'm sorry to hear of this latest uncertainty. It's certainly possible for a new nodule to show up in three months, but it would most likely be from the existing cancer. But in your mom's case you don't have a confirmed cancer diagnosis, so it is also possible that the new finding represents pneumonia or some other form of infection or inflammation. Unfortunately without further workup there's no way to positively identify what it is. At times, a course of antibiotics will be tried to see if the infiltrates clear up; since cancer nodules don't just disappear without anti-cancer treatment, that would provide the answer.
JimC
Forum moderator
Reply # - December 3, 2014, 09:11 PM
That's exactly right. Rather
That's exactly right. Rather than just speculate about the many possibilities, the critical intervention would be a biopsy, perhaps in the very near future, or perhaps after some time and perhaps empiric (essentially, "let's just see what happens") treatment with an antibiotic to treat the possibility of a pneumonia.
Good luck.
-Dr. West