I had a chest x-ray due to coughing non stop for 3 months, it showed nodules in lungs, went for cat scan and they couldn't identify them, had pet scan and one of them lit up like a 3. it is 1 cm. doc said we could biopsy now or come back in 3 months, I chose to go back in 3 months, but am now having second thoughts. What do u think about a nodule being only 1 cm but lighting up like a 3. should I get a biopsy or wait and see in 3 months if it has grown.

You will drive yourself bonkers waiting for 3 months to know what is going on. Please go back to dr have the biopsy done. Then you can think clearly knowing what your problem is and what options you have. The key to this right now is why did it lite up? Obviously not good. This will only get worse and grow bigger and the more you wait the more your body is going to suffer. If you are still coughing, then by all means get the biopsy done now.

Before I go any further, I am curious if you were put on any medication? Please let me know if you were, what kind, and for how long. Then I will be in a better position to advise you from there.

for 3 months they were giving me antibiotics for a sinus infection, none worked. From chest x-ray on till now no medications were subscribed

Would you mind telling me where you live? Are you in the US? If you don't want to give the exact state, I understand, but if you are in the US, what area?

I live in Indiana

Please bear with me... but to get a good picture of the situation, I have many questions to ask before I can even formulate an idea...

What kid of work do you do?

You live in IN, Southern or Northern?

Blackbirds in your area?

Were you tested for TB?

Were you tested for Histoplasmosis?

Are you a smoker?

Previous jobs expose you to asbestos?

Are you around second hand smoke?

Does your family health history have any form of cancer?

Are you male or female?

Fairland,in tested for histo don't have results yet, smoker yes, work in retail, breast cancer in family and colon and prostate and brain tumor and lukemia and I'm a 56 yr old female

I'm assuming its not histo though cause I took the test like 2 months ago or more and when I called and ask for the results they said that he would talk to me about all the results when I go back to get another cat scan. So if it was histo I'm assuming he would have prescribed medication for me for histo.

PET is superior to CT in the assessment of mediastinal nodal metastases. In patients with N2 disease, PET had a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 94% compared with a sensitivity of 63% and a specificity of 73% with CT. The superiority of PET is even more marked in the assessment of hilar nodes, for which it has a 73% sensitivity and a 76% specificity, compared with an 18% sensitivity and an 86% specificity with CT


from
eMedicine - Lung Cancer, Staging : Article by Isaac Hassan, MBChB, DMRD, FRCR

sensitivity of 83 % means that it will detect 83 of 100 true cases of cancer
that is 17 % false negative rate
the higher the sensitivity the better the negative predictive value
- that means a negative test eliminates the possibility of what you are
looking for

specificity of 94 % means that 94 of 100 + tests were truly cancer and 6 of 100
tests were false negative [ + test ] not due to cancer.
- the higher the specificity the better the positive predictive value.
the higher the liklihood that a positive test is truly due to the pro-
blem you are testing for.


Characterization of the Solitary Pulmonary Nodule: 18F-FDG PET Versus Nodule-Enhancement CT -- Christensen et al. 187 (5): 1361 -- American Journal of Roentgenology

"These histologically confirmed false-positive nodules included histoplasmosis, chondroid hamartoma, sarcoidosis, foreign body reaction to talc, and necrotizing granuloma, all conditions with inflammatory components and thus increased vascularity."-


Talk to your doctor about
1] the risk that this is cancer - and the risk that it will spread and therefore become untreatable in 3 months.

2] the risk that this is not cancer - and therefore the risk of a biopsy/ surgery.


The risk of cancer is higher if
you smoke or have smoked regularly in the past, or less likely - second hand smoke.
asbestose exposure


If you have chest x-rays or cat scans of your lungs from 1 or more years ago showing these lesions and no change the likelihood that this is cancer is less. If they were not there then - then I would get a biopsy ASAP.




Grace and Peace

Kind of confused about this answer, not quite sure what you are saying. Are you saying that just because its only 1cm but 3 on the pet scan that I should be worried? Never had a scan before all this so don't have anything to compare it to. He also said I had enlarged lypmh nodes in chest that he was concerned about. What does that mean, he said this as an after the fact thing, while I was walking out the door.

j-9 sorry I forgot they put me on 2 inhalers spriiriva and adwair. That was right before I had my cat scan