The Colon Club

So, last Friday, I got a call from one of the Doctors, I believe it was the same Doctor who did my clonoscopy. He told me over the phone that the CT scan I had earlier that day did not show signs of metastastic disease and that the cancer was only seen in my rectum and a few possible lymph nodes. Today, I am reading over my electronic medical folder and it says something about seeing 3 Indeterminate Pulmonary Nodules. I cannot find any definitive answers as to what that means as far as my staging goes. Does this mean I have spread to my lungs? Or, am I getting worked up over nothing? I have two days to go before I get answers with an appointment with my surgeon and the wait is killing me.

Hey Deep,

Unfortunately those reports are written in a way that most people, including myself, have no clue what they mean. I depend on my oncologist to interpret for me and she's darn good at it.

Pulmonary nodules could be nothing and they could be cancer. I've had things show up that turned out to be pockets of fluid and I've also had things show up that would have taken me out faster than cancer.

There's no point reading and re-reading the report, searching online, or taking anyone's opinion as fact. You'll just have to wait till you meet with your doctor. Sorry.

hiker

I just had a Ct scan to see if lung nodules had changed in size. Originally diagnosed with stage 3c rectal cancer the beginning of Sept. Report came back with a few tiny lung nodules. Did the 28 days of chemoradiation then started 3 treatments of xeloda/Oxaliplatin off which I have done 2 of the 3. Oncologist did not think the nodules were cancer but did the CT scan to be sure. Nodules had neither disappeared or grew so he is confident that it is old scar tissue from an old infection. Still too much inflammation to tell if tumor has reduced but can only see 2 out of the original 5 rectal nodes that looked cancerous and those have reduced by about 40%. Surgery is planned for January 17th and an MRI will be done prior to surgery so surgeon has a better idea of what he is dealing with. I know it's hard not to worry about the nodules but I have been told about half of people show they have them on a Ct scan. They will follow them for quite some time just to be sure.

At the end of the report there will be a summary of findings. That's the part you should be reading. The body of the report will note every little incidental finding that the radiologist comes across which can sound scary (they found a liver nodule in my first CT, which turned out to be a harmless cyst), but the summary of findings is the most important part. Certainly ask your surgeon about it, but try not to worry too much for now and trust in your doctors as they are the ones who know how to interpret these reports.

Hi there

I understand the worry. I don’t want to hijack your post but concerned about similar issues. My indeterminate nodes all disappeared from my lungs and liver and shrunk on my kidney-after 11 rounds of chemo- but nobody is clearly saying that they were cancer that has responded. I’m happy they are gone but I’m very concerned they were Mets. Which would put me in stage 4

I know the answers will never be black and white on this rollercoaster ride, but I really want them to be

Take care of yourself and breath deep,
Nordy1

My husband and I have recently gone through a similar concern as he had nodules detected last spring and had a follow up in November to see if they changed in size. They hadn't so we feel very good about it. Here are some helpful pieces of information we got along the way: the vast majority of the time, these "nodules" are benign at a great rate of like 90%, and the best method of detection for any abnormalities in the chest is a Chest CT. Hope this helps!

My mom also had one small lung nodule they were watching from the beginning and at her last scan, while the rest of the cancer shrunk by 40% the nodule didn’t change. They said it was likely not nor ever had been cancerous.

Deep wrote: Today, I am reading over my electronic medical folder and it says something about seeing 3 Indeterminate Pulmonary Nodules. I cannot find any definitive answers as to what that means as far as my staging goes. Does this mean I have spread to my lungs? Or, am I getting worked up over nothing? I have two days to go before I get answers with an appointment with my surgeon and the wait is killing me.

I think you just have to wait. It could be something benign like atelectasis scar tissue on three alveoli

Cicatricial: This type of atelectasis is when the tissue that makes up your lungs has scars that keep them from being able to hold as much air as they should

This is what I had, as diagosed by a pulmonologist reading my scan