Pancoast Tumor

blp2020
Posts:1

Hi, I’m 23 years old and starting last year around march or so I started to get this pain in my shoulder blade where it felt like it needed to be cracked. The pain was pretty intense but it only occurred if I squeezed my right shoulder blade back. The pain subsided every now in then through the year but I came back consistently around November-December 2022. Starting January the pain just got worse and now the pain is not only in my shoulder blade but the right side of my chest also. More towards the bottom towards the ribs. It only causes really sharp pain in certain movement but there are times that it’ll feel sore when just resting. Basically when I get a sharp pain in my back by movement I feel it radiating towards my chest and sometimes there are movements where I only feel the pain in my chest. I have a doctors appointment next Tuesday but Ive been freaking out and my anxiety has been killing me because I think I have a Pancoast tumor. There aren’t really any other symptoms other than pain and aches on the right side of the body but the pain gets worse pretty much everyday. I am also not a smoker, I have smoked weed here and there like 4 times a year but I don’t consistently smoke

BP

JanineT GRACE …
Posts: 651
GRACE Community Outreach Team

Hi blp2020, 

Welcome to Grace. I'm sorry you're having trouble. It would be very extremely rare to find a pancoast tumor in person your age. They are normally found in older adults 50+ with a significant smoking history and gosh awful constant pain...even then they are rare. This is a link to our questions about pancoast tumors,https://cancergrace.org/search?keys=pancoast+tumor

 

I hope you are able to find out what's happening and get relief.

 

All the best,

Janine

 

 

 

I joined GRACE as a caregiver for my husband who had a Pancoast tumor, NSCLC stage III in 2009. He had curative chemo/rads then it was believed he had a recurrence in the spine/oligometastasis that was radiated. He's 10 years out from treatment.