Early symptoms of lung met?

Artista928

Pre BMX I had a clear chest xray. Had BMX on 8/5/15 and 1 sentinel node had micromets. Chemo was delayed not to be able to start until 11/3 due to drains in for 5 weeks and a long lasting infection fight. So I started on the 90 day mark, the border of chemo being most effective. Before I started chemo I had a CT scan that showed a 6 mm nodule. Too small to biopsy or for a PET scan to pick up any metabolic activity- so I'm left waiting till after chemo (3/1 is last dose) to have a repeat CT scan. If nodule still there then = not met. If it's gone, then could be met. I was wondering if there are other signs of it being a lung met vs benign nodule if I fall into the it could be a met.

KBeee

you'd likely need to have more or bigger nodules to have symptoms, which would mostly be chronic cough or shortness of breath. Benign lung modules are very, very common though

Yoshi_Falls

Hi Artista928. When i had my diagnostic scans they found 2 nodules on my lungs. One was 4.7mm the other about 2mm. My surgeon was never concerned about them, but, my Radio and Medical Oncologists were both not convinced about them being benign. After 3 months of AC chemo they rescanned and noted that there was no change (this scan was 6 months after my original scan). They decided that they are most likely old scaring from something in my past.

I was worried about them and then got a cough, I asked my surgeon about them and he said that it would be very highly unlikely that my cough was anything to do with my nodules. He said that you would need heaps of very small nodules (eg. hundreds) or for them to be the size of a golf ball for them to become symptomatic. They carried on with the Taxol chemo. I haven't had anymore scans and unlikely to get them rescanned unless I get symptomatic. They cannot biopsy until the nodules are 1cm or larger. I was very worried about mine being mets, and sometimes still get worried, but, I feel fine at the moment and have just had to learn to accept the uncertainty that breast cancer brings.

Another friend of mine has the same thing. She is 3.5 years out from breast cancer treatment (very similar diagnosis to mine) and got a very bad cough that wouldn't go away (4 months of bad coughing, her Onc was very concerned). They re-checked her nodules and there was no change. Benign nodules are very common.

I previously posted in the lung nodule and dreaded re-scan topics. Lots of the women there have been in the same boat as us. Hugs to you, I understand your stress.

Artista928

Thanks everyone. I won't worry then. Glad to hear yours are ok Yoshi.