Hi all,
I am wondering if anyone has experienced this…
When I was diagnosed with BC in january, a scan showed that I had lung spots. The oncologist told me that they were so small that they didnt know what they were and they could have beem there pre BC. My doctor said it was because I was a smoker and had had bronchitis. I also had TB at a young age.
The chemo shrunk my breast lump considerably and a scan showed that the spots were unchanged which my onc thinks is a good sign.
I have recently had a mastectomy and am due to start rads and the histology showed they had removed all the cancer.
The Onc said they will be giving me regular chest xrays to keep an eye on the spots. I am a pessimist by nature and cant shake the feeling that they are more sinister. Has anyone experienced this and what symptoms would I have if it were secondary in the lungs?
Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks in advance
Katyx
Hi Katy
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Kind regards
Sam
Moderator
Breast Cancer Care
exactly the same happened to me i had brain mets so they did other scans
the onc said suspicious spots on lungs not sure etc etc
i had some chemo as a precaution then was rescanned
he said there were 3 options if it grew worst option
if it shrunk it was lung mets but was responding to chemo or as it was in my case
it didnt change this was the best option as it probably was nothing
i came off the chemo and the lung spots havent been mentioned since
Thanks for that- feel slightly reassured now and nice to know not alone.
I wish you all the best with your treatment
take care
Katyx
your medical records may have x rays pre breast cancer. If these have spots on them it’s no doubt due to your earlier medical history. I think it’s very likely tuberculosis has left scars on your lungs.
Mole
A PET scan, which measures metabolic activity - i.e. how fast cells are working/dividing, would give you the best answer but it also would deliver a relatively high dose of radiation - like don’t cuddle any babies in the few hours afterwards! So it«s just something to bear in mind for the future. I have spots on my lungs on the CT scans but not on the PET. A reading over a certain level suggests malignant disease rather than inflamation such as the body has with arthritis or during healing at lower levels. PET scans are also very expensive so for that and the dose of radiation, quite rarely used. My PET scan showed up 2 tumours in the lymph nodes in my chest which looked completely different from my lungs and have been treated successfully with RT, even tho the RT fields overlapped with those used to zap a recurrence in my mastectomy scar 4 years before.
Wishing you well,
Jenny
I had the same, and the consultant thinks it is scar tissue from pneumonia I had a few years ago. Chemo made no difference to size, but did shrink liver mets. awaiting CT scan result on completing chemo, so hope the lung has remained the same!!
Onc. said that if you pulled people in off the street, as suprisingly high proportion would have some spots on their lungs too!