how long to watch small lung met

[vancouver eve]

Has anyone been told that they are not sure the small 6mm node on your lung is cancer by given your history I would think it is. This is what my ONC. informed me today. The ONC. did it through her nurse. I see the ONC. on Thurs. so I will be asking alot of questions. The interesting part is that the report came back saying no evidence of local reurrence or distant metastases. I asked the nurse how that could be since at the beginning of the report it states I had an 8mm node that is now 6mm? Even the nurse did know what to say. Just we recieved an email from someone we contact in another part of the country and he says to have it removed. I had been thinking of Proton Radiation but this man was a stage 4 and had been given 3 months to live and here it is 14 years later.He had lung mets in both lungs. He also had a liver met and was given 3 months to live but he went to Sloan Kettering in New York and they saved his life.

[shmurciakova]

Hi again Eve,
I think you should go ahead and talk to a surgeon ASAP. This clearly is causing you a great deal of anxiety. I was told the exact same thing when nodules 4 & 5mm showed up on my scans. I waited 8 months all told until they were 1cm in size and lit up on a PET scan.
As someone said the other day to you, I think 6mm is the smallest size that can really be resected. You have two choices, you can continue chemo, see if it goes away, or go ahead and have it taken out. As I told you before, surgery is generally considered the best chance for a cure.
The other procedures you have been checking into RFA, etc. are normally done if some reason you cannot have normal surgery.
I don't think it matters if you have surgery there by someone whom you feel comfortable with, or go to MD Anderson, Sloan Kettering etc.
It is very encouraging indeed to hear about your friend who is 14 years out!
Wow, that gives great hope to all of us!
-Susan H.

[Jeremiah]

My small spot on my lung did nothing for more than a year. I now have 4 lungs spots, lymph node involvement in chest, by liver, and peritoneal, more liver spots and a very very ugly situation......and we have been monitoring this very closely for almost 2 years.

[Joy]

Eve:

If you look at my past posts on this board you will see that I worried myself sick. The Oncologist nurse was the first one to give me results and she scared me almost to death!! Talk with your Oncologist they are the only ones who can give you the medical opinion on CT scans.


On my first CT scan after my Chemo I was given a report by the radialogist which said "suspicious node etc etc in lungs, suspicious nodes in peritoneal etc etc" I freaked out I was told to wait 3 months and have another CT scan --- the new verdict was lung nodes probably not cancer were possibly caused by the fact that I had been a smoker 20 years ago!! The Peritoneal lymph node enlargement was probably caused by the stress of my rectal surgery.

I waited another 3 months....no change.
I waited another 3 months.....shrinkage of peritoneal node, lung node no change

I'm now at 2 years post surgery and NED

[rthornton]

When I was first diagnosed back in May '05, I had a lesion on my left lung that did not show up on any PET scans, so we took a wait-and-see approach. Finally, two years later it started to grow so it was biopsied this past summer, found to be malignant, and removed. Last week I had a procedure performed on my left lung to address a pleural effusion, and the doctor reported seeing multiple lung mets in the pleural lining. I can't help but wonder if that could have been avoided with a more aggressive approach two years ago. Watching for growth seemed reasonable two years ago, since it did not show up on a PET scan, but now I know that PETs aren't always entirely reliable.

[missjv]

hey rodney,
so what now can they do for your lungs? i think wait and see is not a good option. i was put on wait and see back in december when a 0.3 cm lung nodule showed on my ct scan and was told lets watch and see what it does and i said lets put me on chemo and watch and see what it does. i told doc noway am i sitting around for 2 months if it is cancer and giving it a chance to spread so now im on chemo of irenotecan and erbitux. i am pretty sure it is a met given my stage 4 history but hopefully the chemo will get it.


missjv

[rthornton]

Their suggestion was irinotecan and erbitux. I chose to try irinotecan and avastin, because I hate erbitux that much. I have had one infusion of irinotecan a long time ago and it made me violently ill, but it was after eight cycles of 5FU. I am hoping that I'll tolerate it better this time. How do you do with it? It's allegedly a pretty effective drug.

[bradyr]

yes - frankly your met doesn't qualify as that small to me.

We've talked before - if it's not growing (or not before growing fast, then this isn't as big a situation as it scares us to be).

But, on the other hand, the larger it is and the larger it gets the fewer and fewer options you will have to have it treated once it gets to a certian size.

it might already be too big for RFA - I' not sure waht the upper limits are for that procedure.

some form of radation may be the answer. Radiation is never fun and the larger the target, the more you'll need the more serious. But I've good luck with radiation and I trust it as treatment. I understand the lung chest areas is much better than certainly any lower abdomon treatments - where side effects and suffering are usually bad.

my guess of things to consider - lenght of the treatment, how many times you'll have to go, how long they drag this out, etc. The expected recovery time, might be a few days, might be a couple of weeks of pain or tired. Danager to other organs, skin anythnig that might give you anothere long term symptom that affects your ongoing quality of life after you recover.

I'm pretty sure you can find a doc and a treatment that will be a good mix of these trade offs.

and of course, following up with some more chemo as a mop up is something you should have them consider.

[Joy]

Eve: I hope I didn't give you the impression that you should just sit back and take a wait and see attitude. What I was trying to tell you is do not take information "second hand" from a nurse. In my case the nurse read the report to me over the phone and when she got to the "questionable" part she said OH dear ....this part doesn't sound good!!

The Nurse scared be bejeebies out of me!!

My Oncologist sat with me and went over the report and for my peace of mind I had CT scans every 3 months.


I'm not clear whether your Oncologist has said "mets"? or if there is a "question" on your CT scans?

In any case I can understand how stressed you must be and I am praying that your news from the Oncologist will be good.


Joyce
Naples Florida Winter
Ontario Canada summer

[missjv]

WELL RODNEY I HAVE TO AGREE WITH YOU IN HATING ERBITUX. MY SKIN IS SO DRY IT IS CRACKING. HAVE HAD A FEW BOUTS WITH THE RASH BUT NOT BAD I HAD A COUPLE OF REALLY SORE BOILS ON MY FACE THAT WERE VERY ATTRACTIVE BUT MY MAIN PROBLEM IS THE CRACKING OF THE SKIN. IRENOTECAN MAKES ME VERY TIRED AND I HAVE LESS ENERGY I DRAG MYSELF TO THE Y 4 MORNINGS A WEEK TO WORK OUT BUT IT IS A CHALLENGE TO GET IN THE CAR AND DRIVE THERE ANYMORE. I AM RESCANNED FEB 5 SO HOPEFULLY THAT LITTLE THING WILL BE GONE.

MISSJV

[sue]

'Shaped beam radiosurgery' is what i will have on my lung spots if they grow more.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 154429.htm

This is not experimental anymore.

[sue]

How come no-one ever answers anything when I post about 'Shaped beam radiosurgery? This is a great treatment for lung mets.
????????

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 154429.htm