Last week I saw my GP Doctor to discuss a burning pain on the tip of my left scapula. It has been there for more than 8 weeks now. I also get shooting pains down my left arm to my fingers. The scapula pains is almost always there but sometimes it burns more than other times. My GP Doctor looked at my back and did some movement test. He is convinced it is muscular, but, because of my concerns as (an x smoker) he had me get an x ray anyway (the x ray came back normal). This pain does not feel muscular to me, I am very athletic and have never has this kind of pain (burning) that has lasted so long.. The occasional shooting pain down my left arm also does not feel normal. The pain is just always there, weather I am moving or not. I looked up my symptoms and and Pancoast Tumor seems to describe the pain exactly. I understand that Pancoast Tumors are somewhat rare and very hard to detect by x-ray. The pain does not seem to be getting worse, and on some days it even feels a little less. My DR thinks I just need a little rest. I am still very concerned. If I have cancer I want to catch it as soon as possible and an MRI seems to be the only test that can really see the Pancoast tumor, if I have it. I was just wondering if my pains match the symptoms of Pancoast Tumor from others perspective. And I was just wondering how to convince my doctor to order an MRI test. If anyone has thoughts on my issue, I would love to hear some comments.
Pancoast Tumor question - 1274754
mini9mini9
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Reply # - July 21, 2016, 05:08 PM
Hi mini9mini9,
Hi mini9mini9,
Welcome to GRACE. I am sorry that you are experiencing this pain, but if a chest x-ray did not reveal the presence of a pancoast tumor, that pretty much proves that you don't have one. As Dr. West stated in a similar circumstance:
"I cannot explain why you’re having this pain, but I would reassure you that a Pancoast tumor is astronomically unlikely. I think a Pancoast tumor may be the most over-internet diagnosed problem in the cancer world — at least lung cancer. It is extremely common for people vanishingly unlikely to have a Pancoast tumor to scare themselves half to death by a Dr. Google diagnosis. It is overwhelmingly likely that you do NOT have a Pancoast tumor. And while a chest x-ray is a very old technology and CT is better, a chest x-ray would be sufficient to all but prove that it ISN’T a Pancoast tumor." - http://cancergrace.org/topic/very-scared-of-pancoast-tumor-please-any-a…
This is especially true if you are relatively young (certainly if you are under 40 years old), as it takes lung cancer a number of years to develop from smoking, and your chances decrease after you quit.
In my eight years on GRACE, I have seen many posts very similar to yours, and I can't recall a single instance in which a poster returned to state that they eventually were diagnosed with a pancoast tumor. I hope that further workup can uncover the cause of your pain, as well as a treatment to eliminate it.
JimC
Forum moderator
Reply # - July 21, 2016, 05:10 PM
It's not true that an MRI is
It's not true that an MRI is the only scan that can see a pancoast tumor. A CT scan would pick it up and the xray would too since it was of the shoulder area. This sounds like a pinched nerve in the neck. I had this ongoing for several years and had every test they had. I finally saw a chiropractor and had two pinched nerves in my neck. Saw the chiro for up to 6 weeks and got it all worked out. There are many reasons for what you're feeling and I would never jump to a pancoast tumor. If you're athletic, then you're probably a non smoker too. Take care, Judy