very worried husband wrote:... They want to do CT scan again tomorrow and we will see the oncologist on 4th September. ...
Hi VWH - After re-reading the earlier comments posted on this thread, my general feeling is that you should not worry at all, because the report did say that it was likely just a post-infection inflammation. One thing you could do before your September 4th meeting with the oncologist, however, is to put together a list of questions that would help you clarify the situation. For example, some of the things you might want to ask are:
1. Where, exactly is this nodule located? Is it inside the lung, or is it in the space between the lung and the diaphragm?
2. What do they mean by "nodule"-- are they referring to a lymph node or are they referring to some other kind of structure?
3. The new CT scan that they are requesting -- is this the CT Thorax mentioned earlier? If so, is it being run at the same definition as the earlier one, or is the machine now set for "High Definition" this time around?
4. Is the radiologist able to discern the
shape of the nodule? If the nodule is in fact a lymph node and it still retains the shape of a bean, then the 6mm spot is likely due to inflammation, but if the 6mm spot is a cancerous lymph node, then it will likely be amorphous in shape.
5. Is the new CT scan being run too soon after the original one? Normally they wait several months to do the follow-up CT in order to let any possible inflammation subside.
6. Is it possible to get a second copy of the CT scan report? If so, this copy could be sent out for a second opinion to one of the hospitals that do second-opinion reviews.
I'm not a specialist in this area, but all in all I would not get too worried just now. The normal CEA values are a good sign. They suggest that there are no metastases contributing to the tumor marker value. (If the CEA values were out-of-range, then this would be a different matter, but since they are within the normal range there is less cause for concern.)
Please let us know what you find out.