Hi all, I have recently been diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma in right breast and a total of 9/15 lymph nodes infected too. I have had a whole body ct scan and a bone scan which has shown nodules on my lungs!!! My oncologist has said that they are currently too small to biopsy and are indeterminate, whatever that means! He wants to do another ct scan in 6 months as if they are cancer they will either grow or shrink and if they are nothing to worry about they will stay the same! I have had my surgery and am due to start chemo on Friday but am more worried about these suspect nodules and don’t know how I am going to get through the next 6 months without going insane! I have never smoked so don’t know what else they could be? Has anyone else had this sort of thing and it’s turned out to be nothing???. Xx
Dear Jlr
I am sorry to read that you have this worry, please feel free to give our helpliners a call, they are here to offer you further support, information and a listening ear.
Helpline 0808 800 6000 open weekdays 9-5 and Sat 10-2
Take care
Lucy
Hi I was dx march 2012 grade 3 tn with 6/18 nodes, I had a ct scan and bone scan straight away and it showed one blip on my lung and one on my liver!! But my onc said the same thng to me…don’t worry pretty sure nothing to worry about, if he scanned all the people n the street half of them would probably having something show. Well it’s ok for him to say don’t worry!! I had chemo and after chem they ct scanned me again in August and he basically said nothing to worry about, so small they are insignificant and they even debated whether it had been worth mentioning it in the first place and causing me 6 months of worry. Obviously I am relieved but as you said, that is all I could think about for 6 months and now after chemo, surgery and rads every time I get a slight twinge I automatically think about that scan. Sometimes you just want to say to them …only tell me stuff I need to worry about at this moment in time. Apparently it is pretty common for people to find they have scarring show up you don’t have to have smoked, it could just be scarring from a bad chest infection. I actually found out I had a horseshoe kidney!?, weird.
Do try to put it to the back of your head and concentrate on getting through the chemo. Don’t start jumping hurdles that aren’t even there yet. All the very best, I’m sure you will be fine.
Chatty katty, you just made me joining this site completely worthwhile! As my oncologist has said exactly the same to me as yours did to you, about dragging people off the street etc… I have now decided not to even think about the lung nodules until I really have to and concentrate on getting through chemo! Thank you for sharing xx
Hi, just to confirm what Chatty Katty has said many people if scanned would show up an abnormality that is nothing to worry about. I have a small cyst which showed on my liver which my onc says is nothing to worry about. Lung nodules can be as a result of chest infections etc so I would concentrate on your chemo and not worry about something that might be and probably is nothing. Your oncologist is an expert and if he/she had a genuine concern they would be taking action.
good luck with your treatment.
Smartie x
Hello Jlr
I was dx nearly 3 years ago and after my mx and scans i too showed up with nodules on my lung. I was horrifed at ths as like you had never smoked. My onc I felt handled this dreadfully, I was so upset and he just dismissed it and said that my immediate concern should be focussing on my up and coming chemo. He upset me so much I asked for a different onc and we didn’t ‘gel’ from the start.
i did stay with this onc and he told me that after 6 x chemo if the nodules were cancerous then the chemo would obliterate them, if after chemo ( I was to be be scanned again after chemo) they were still there, then this would suggest they are not cancerous.
After I was scanned on completion of chemo the nodules were still there, but like yours, so tiny they coudln’t assess what they were. My onc was not concerned at all about them.
I do worry though, about 18 months ago before a major reconstruction op I was having I had a dreadful chesty cough and nobody was taking it seriously even though radio adverts daily at that time were saying if you had persistant cough get it checked out for lung cancer.
I eventually after much battling got a scan and luckily the results were negative. Onc told me I was clear but I did have a broken rib- I knew I’d had such a violent coughing fit one day I wasn’t surprised!!
I feel that I have to trust them if they say it’s clear, then it is, but when you’ve already had cancer dx you cannot help but worry.
Good luck
Jude
x
Jlr
Hi i was diagnosed in january 2012 and had a CT and bone scan at that time. When my surgeon told me that the CT showed up multiple indterminate nodules i was terrified. He also explained that many people have these nodules and that they are usually nothing. The equipment is apparently so high tech that they show up every little mark and this is one reason they do not routinely scan patients. I was scanned again mid chemo, and the end of chemo and again last month. The nodules have not changed in all that time and i will be having another scan in 12 months just to be sure. I tried not to think about it too much between scans but i admit i get a bit anxious each time i am awaiting the results. Good luck with your treatment and please try to put this to the back of your mind in the meantome. I am sure that it will turn out to be nothing.
Xx
Thank goodness for this site and all your replys as it is so comforting to find out there are other people with the same condition that have thankfulliy turned out to be ok, fingers crossed mine will be too, thank you all for taking time out to reassure me! Janey xx
I have lung nodules , I am on chemo , how is your chemo going ?
Louise
Hi Louise, I have my very first session booked for Friday so am very nervous and just don’t know what to expect, hope you are doing ok, janey xx
just to reiterate what everybody else has said I had 2 nodules, one was 5mm if I remember correctly. My onc said if you scanned everybody they would all show up little lumps and bumps. I was rescanned 12 months later and as they were exactly the same my onc was proven right! I am now almost 5 years since finished Herceptin and am NED to my knowledge.
Pauline
Thank you, struggling and your post is so comforting, breast cancer for the 2nd time after 7 years, I cannot take chemo again because of my heart.
Had my CT scan today, bone scan next week and muga scan to follow, have been terrified, as I thought cancer was racing around my body.
You have all given me strength and hope for when the results come through. It is not an easy journey 2nd time around, any advice how to stay calm and cope would be appreciated.
God Bless you all, I know I am not on this journey alone, but sometimes feel that way xx
I too had a “nodule” on my lung on CT pre-treatment, which was commented on, and judged indeterminate, with the advice of further investigation/monitoring. In other words it was something or nothing. Onc simply told me it was too deep to biopsy.
Abour two months after this I had a further CT to diagnose clots on my lungs. I had been trying, with varying degrees of success, not to worry about my lung nodule. Anyway I did have bilateral lung emboli, but I was much more interested in the fact that my nodule was unchanged since the previous CT, after I think 3 cycles of Adriamycin/Cyclophosphamide. I know it was fairly early days of chemo, as I have 6 months altogether, but I was vastly reassured.
I too was told that the CT usually shows up all manner of little blips, cysts and nodules that are of absolutely no concern. 
Hi Jlr, here’s a copy of what I posted on the ‘lung mets’ thread last night
I was dx back in Feb 2011 with a large 6.5 primary IDC initially then 2 weeks later suspected lung mets. I say suspected because they were so tiny they couldn’t biopsy them to confirm that it was lung mets. Since June 2011 they have stayed the same no change stable condition and like some of you have mentioned one Onc casually mentioned that it could be scar tissue!!! of course this has now taken precedence over thinking its cancer on my lungs and as far as I am concerned its only scar tissue and thats what I’m sticking to. However, because we can’t 100% confirm that its only scar tissue we have to treat it as if it was something more sinister so I am on Herceptin forever and Tamoxifen for at least 5 years (2 down and counting!!) other than having some SE from these two I am ok, and am without any symptoms. I kind of live in limbo land not the same as I was before all of this and in a sort of cancer twillight zone!! I have until recently been having regular CT scans but due to the amount of radiation they’ve pumped into me over the past 2 years they have decided to stop the scans for the moment and just give me yearly ones, this is a bit nerve racking but I’m getting used to it gradually. Have to be honest with you all I beleive the NHS is generally not in a very good way at the moment and for the first time since all this crap started Ive had a few problems with getting my herceptin, apparently there was noone available at my hospital to sign off my herceptin so I’ve had to wait an extra few days for it also I’ve mentioned to my GP that the hospital seem to be a bit crap ie: waiting for 3 hours for a 5 min onc appt!!! GP told me “its only going to get worse” don’t quite now what he means by this but it is worrying especially when you have secondary’s or possilbe seconary’s.
Sending you all love and light
Sarahlouisex
Jlr and Morwena, This might be food for thought for you your nodule could just be scar tissue but when they are very very tiny they can’t biopsy them which is why your onc said ‘indeterminate’. To be honest with you also it doesn’t matter that you’ve never smoked or even if you have never drank its breast cancer that has possibly spread onto your lung or in my case lungs, I’ve spoken with plenty of women over the past 2 years that have the same dx as myself some of which were vegetarian, marathon runners super super fit and they still got breast cancer which spread, I also had spread in my lymph nodes although I did neo-adjuvant chemo (prior to surgery) so we will never really know how many lymph nodes were involved they took 13 at surgery only one had a little in it. so please don’t beat yourself up or try looking for answers to the big WHY question I’m affraid you will go round and round in circles trying to work that one out I gave up after a year and it sent me a bit loopy!! There is no rhyme or reason too this disease everyone’s cancer is individual and is treated as such. If you need a chat , rant or any advice if I can help in anyway I will send me a private message and I will get back to you. I don’t come on here much now maybe once every 6 months. Take care love and light to you all sarah xx
Hi there,
I have a ct scan tomorrow and a bone one on Tuesday and I am terrified of what they will show up. I have just joined this site and been reading some very helpful information so far, so thank you for that!
I had a 4.8cm tumour removed with a mastectomy and reconstruction on the 14th May 2013 with the initial SLNB showing negative however when we got the pathology report it showed that there was 1 x inframammary node which was positive and also the sentinel node had a micrometastasis of 0.4mm on it and upgraded to grade 3 when the core biopsy had shown as being grade 2. They gave me two options 1 of leaving it or a lymph node clearance which I had on 24th May levels I and II; boy has that been painful!!! The results of this came through today, 14 removed and all 14 clear - thank the lord!!!
Having never had a ct scan, the information says you lie with your arms above your head; as I cannot move my arm much and certainly not above my head does anyone know if they will be able to do the scan if I am in a modified position?
I understand Jlr, one of the worst parts of this whole journey is the waiting and waiting 6 months seems inconceivable to me right now but “they” seem to know what they are doing so we have to take their word for it, I just wish sometimes I didn’t know some things that I do. It feels like I know a little about a lot and a lot about a little and mostly none of it has the ability to make me feel anything but midly positive!
Nazgirl just mention to the people doing your scan that you have a problem raising your arm. It’s a problem they are well used to and they will show you where to position your arm so that you are comfortable and they can get the images they want. On the more modern machines the scans only take a few minutes. You are not going into a long tunnel at all - it is just like a big donut and as you move in and out you are asked to hold your breath, then told you can breathe normally again.
Dawn
Hi Jlr,
I had my CT scan done last week and will find out results on the 11th. I have been really worried as doctor has my bc is very aggressive and is growing of my hormones so I have just been imagining its all over. But I have been reasurred a bit with some of the comments. I start my chemo on the 13th and worried about this also. But this site has definately helped. You can if you want join the june jewels its all the ladies that are goin through treatment just now and some about to. They are a great bunch of ladies and you find out lots of information about side effects and different things.
Deedee xx
Oh well I have had my 6 month follow up ct scan and although the original nodules are unchanged there are now additional nodules on the outside of my lungs!!! Again they are too small to biopsy so it’s another ct scan in 3 months to see if these new nodules remain the same or not! Can’t imagine what could have caused theses new nodules so once again driving myself mad with worry! Xx
Hi Jlr, I’m so sorry to read you have been left in limbo for SO long. 
It must be hard to live with all the uncertainty. I have mets though not to lungs but I also had nodules which were, eventually, dismissed as nothing untoward. In my case there had been chicken-pox in the family and this was the cause of the nodules for me.
Thinking of you and I hope eventually you can cross them off as absolutely nothing to worry about…x
Hi Jlr. I had right mx on 15th May, grade 3 IDC one node involved of 28 and lymphovascular invasion. My CT scan showed lots of indeterminate speckles in both lower lobes and upper right, like yours, too small to see what they are and they have siad they will rescan in 3 months and see what they are doing. I was a smoker for years and had a bad chest infection at christmas so could be scarring. Like you I will have to wait and see. I start chemo on 20/8 and I hope they are still there and the same in a couple of months. I guess until we are given a real diagnosis of cancer we have to look that they are not. Good luck xxx