Spiculated lung nodule

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Hello, i’m new here and very worried.

My father, 60 years old and has asthma, nonsmoker

He had a CT scan two years ago that showed some lung nodules, 4-5 mm in size, which were too small to biopsy. Only monitoring with CT scans was recommended.

A few weeks ago, I visited my parents and wanted to organize all their medical reports. I saw the reports of his CT scans, and one nodule was described as spiculated. Of course, I researched it, and "spiculated" is a very strong indicator of malignancy. Studies indicate that up to 90% of the time, they are malignant.

We scheduled an appointment with his doctor, and I went with him to discuss our concerns. However, the doctor dismissed our worries and told us to keep monitoring. He said that no surgeon would perform surgery on such a small nodule without proof that it's malignant and that it has been stable for two years.We went to another doctor to get a second opinion but were told the same.

I'm so worried and scared, and I've been searching all over the internet for the last few weeks for similar stories and experiences. Almost always, spiculated nodules indeed turn out to be cancerous.

I hoped that maybe the small size made it more likely to be benign, but I saw many people who started with nodules of the same size that later grew and were confirmed as cancerous, sometimes even metastasized.

I really don't know what to do.

  • Hi  and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.

    It's natural to be worried having read your father's medical report and then used google to research it. How does your father feel about what the doctors have told him? 

    You say that the nodules are being monitored so when is his next scan due? If it's not for a while maybe he could phone his consultant's secretary and arrange to have an appointment with the consultant, either face-to-face or over the telephone, to discuss and better understand why only scans are thought necessary.

    The online community is divided into different support groups and I can see that you've already found and joined the lung cancer group. If you post there you will connect directly with others who may have had the same diagnosis as your father.

    Anne

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     "Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"