lung nodule that lights up in Pet

lopsided_blogger · August 2008

Back when I was having radiation (about a year ago now), my radiologist thought he felt a swollen lymph node. He did a Pet to see what was going on and that turned out to be nothing, but a hilar lymph node (node in the lungs) did show moderate uptake. I had pneumonia at the time, so they suggested it might be inflammation or infection, although the report also stated that cancer could not be ruled out.

We did another Pet about 8 months later (after I was over the pneumonia and done with chemo and a year of herceptin), and the hilar lymph node lit up again--continued moderate uptake. However, my radiologist said it hadn't gotten larger and might even have gotten smaller so he wasn't worried. My oncologist also wasn't worried--he said we get junk in our lungs all the time. His plan was to remember it's there and if I have any other possibly related symptoms, we'd check it out. The radiologist goes along with this plan.

I'm wondering if a Pet scan would ever light up for things other than cancer. I wouldn't think this was still inflammation or infection because I've been over pneumonia for several months.

The radiologist report did say that the results were limited because they didn't do a CT scan in conjunction with the Pet scan. Does anyone know if redoing a Pet with CT would get me a definite answer on what this is? The doctors didn't seem to think it could.

Should I just do nothing unless there are other symptoms or should I insist they do another Pet with CT or some other test that would tell more. My radiologist said they could do a bronchioscopy or something that sounds like a biopsy of the lung nodule, but that strikes me as very invasive and something I don't want to do.

Any advice?

Thanks so much!

cp418 · August 2008

I went through a similar situation when I was initially diagnosed with a lung nodule seen on X-ray and PET scan. They did a lung biopsy done from a needle aspiration through my back. The procedure was simple and painless due to lidocaine numbing the area. It was identified as a benign granuloma as I have a long hx of respiratory infections and had bronchitis several times. I was told these lesions are not uncommon in folks with respiratory hx and we can also have mucus 'plugs' observed on these scans as well. I've had several CT scans as followup and no change. At this point I am going to reufse further CT scans to avoid teh excess radiation exposure.

FloridaLady · August 2008

I had this happen also...my doctor just watched it over the next few months. It never changed size and they were in agreement that it was from radiation that hit my lung. I also had a blood-clot in my clavicle area that a PET scan picked up. You can't biopsy this area so they did a ultrasound and it was diagnosed as a blood-clot. I had to tell anyone doing test on me, what it was before hand. It did go away after about six months. I had someone tell me the had a infection that should up on a PET. Also a large scare can make a shadow. Usually they do not rely on just one test, too make a new diagnoses...Thank God! My onc. has a new full color PET scan...it's kinda scary to see your bc in full color, but this helps with issues like these.

Flalady

lung nodule that lights up in Pet

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