Hello and anyone experiencing incidental spiculated lung nodules?

Hi Debbie:

If its too small to Biopsy ,that should be fine to wait a little bit longer .I used Biopsy to confirm this but PET CT also shows red active ,highly suspicious already.

The PET scan was inconclusive because it only lit up slightly but that can often be the case with Adencarcinomas they said which as a NSCLC could well be fitting for what this nodule is. I’ll reply on the main thread with more specifics of what’s happening now xx 

UPDATE on 1.1CM incidental lung nodule

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to update you all since my husband was booked for a PET scan to investigate his nodule further.

The nodule lit up warm on the PET but not near hot enough to make a clear early cancer diagnosis. They told us that Adenocarcinomas often don’t light up red hot at this stage so with a NSCLC being the type of cancer most likely to effect my husband they are stil no less sure or suspicious of this nodule being exactly that. A few days later they presented his case at the MDT,  of the 3 ways they considered safe and reasonable to go from here they unanimously agreed on the surgical approach (rather than continued CT monitoring to be more sure of malignancy or treating it as cancer non invasively with radio or chemo) 

We saw the CardioThoracic surgeon a few days ago to discuss things and the short story is my husband will  have a left upper lobectomy within the next 4 weeks or so! 

It’s been a lot for us both, we’ve gone from a car accident to half a lung needing to be removed in a matter of months and quite how we got here is a bit of blur. 

I feel so Sorry to hear this news ,Im similar size with your husband's nodule but not a lobectomy ( this needs to remove the whole lobe) ,i was segmentectomy ,removed segment only,Im recovery ok ,its about 11 days after surgery .Please keep calm mood ,this is important as well .Keep strong. your husband will be fine.

I thought I’d update you all on what happened with my husband and his incidental lung nodule - sorry it’s taken me so long but it’s been a whirlwind! 

We met with the cardiothoraic surgeon after the MDT consensus was to refer him for a lobectomy. The surgeon agreed that a left upper lung lobectomy was the best option because the nodule was situated fairly deep inside the mid-top section of his upper lobe. The surgeon explained all the risks, the chance that the nodule may NOT be malignant and how he hoped to avoid a thoracotomy by using RATS (Robotic Assisted Thoracic Surgery) and or VATS (Video)

My husband had his surgery on a Monday afternoon  and was home Friday afternoon, they used RATS and managed the job keyhole. He was back in the ward (HDU) 6 hours after he left for theatre,  he had 3 nights in HDU, got the chest drain removed day 4 and home the next morning. He had a PCA pump and Paravertebral block for pain relief which seemed to work wonders. Everything went very well and I’m amazed how well he’s recovering from it already and whilst it’s early days at just 5 weeks post op we both feel optimistic about his operative outcome.

The pathology results came in a few days ago which are still to be discussed at this weeks MDT but we were told it’s very unlikely that he will need to have any further treatment such as chemotherapy etc. it was indeed an early lung cancer. A stage 1 Adenocarcinoma- just as was suspected given the appearance and behaviour of the nodule, my husbands history and it’s failure to light up brightly on PET etc

We know how lucky he was to have his cancer found and treated at such an early stage as we understand it most people aren’t diagnosed until their lung cancer is much further on because the symptoften aren’t apparent until stage 3 or 4 usually. At some point I’m sure they’d have found his lung cancer but I’m in no doubt about how and why us knowing so early all thanks to an awful car acci literally may well have just saved his life!   

I do hope to see better screening for lung cancer in future for us all in the U.K. my husband ticked every box and we know now was at high risk of it! It’s been humbling to realise on a personl level the importance of research, need for funding and resources to support every aspect of prevention as well as cure for all types of cancer diseases now and in the future ️ 

macmillan has my heart and thanks  

I just wanted to say the NHS has done targeted invitations in the Manchester and Newcastle areas on picking up lung cancer earlier than usual. The May also be in progress elsewhere.

In 2022 Newcastle became part of the pilot and I was the first patient discovered with an undiagnosed lung cancer. The are targeting smokers and ex smokers. I had an upper right lobectomy for a tumour, stage 2 and was offered chemo, which I declined as there was no spread to any lymph nodes. Since then all my scans have been clear to date.

I had no idea that I had any cancer at the time so was very glad to be in an early pilot area. I’m not sure how far the programme has progressed but I’d urge anyone who has be invited to take up the offer.

You are so right. Early intervention leads to much better outcomes and smaller cost to the NHS in the longer term. I looked up the approximate cost of a lobectomy in the USA and found that a minimum charge would likely be about 15k and that was just the operation.

Hope all goes well for both of you

Love Daisy

Thanks for sharing Daisy, it goes to show the research into the screening program was worthwhile and you are the living proof of how screening for early lung cancers improves outcomes and saves lives! 

NHS Scotland have not been able to implement a lung cancer screening program yet but I believe they plan to, the research results speak for themselves and with lung cancer survival rates in the U.K. being among the worst globally it’s clear we’ve work to do! 

How often do you have scans to monitor your lungs now? I assume it’s CT scans they use? Is it 5 years they monitor you for post treatment? We’ve yet to hear the official word back from the MDT but my husband received a telephone follow up appointment with his surgeon for 6 months time - we assume he’ll have a CT before the appointment so they know how things look ahead of that.

Thanks again for sharing your story, it was interesting to hear from someone else who’s gone through a similar experience. 

Look after yourself xx 

I was lucky as well found an earlier lung cancer ,im a non smoker female , the chances for me to get lung cancer is lower , i look health as well, keep exercise and good diet .however you never know ,currently i have been after surgery for 2 months . except still has some cough ,everything sounds ok ,I still havent receive any appointment yet from the hospital ,I dont know when will be next appointment . I visited GP and told them I still cough ,GP said will refer to specilist in the hospital who did the surgery for me .Hopefully nothing serious.