patient is female, 41 yrs.,stopped smoking in 1997. chest xrays and chest CT scan revealed numerous small nodules in both lungs, but primary source cannot be found. doctors said it is metastatic lung cancer, 4th stage
She has low hemoglobin count. she has small myoma which doctors said cannot be source of the lung nodules, but bleeds profusely during menstrual periods.
patient does not exhibit symptoms, does not have fever, cough, chest pains, does not suffer from shortness of breath, her skin is ok, is breathing normally.
a lung specialist wants to do VATS to take biopsy, because broncoscopy will not be able to get the needed samples (nodules are too small, far from airways of lung). is VATS the last recourse?
2006-07-09 01:35:03 · 6 answers · asked by pcbug 1 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Cancer
Yes. Primary lung cancer can be very far advanced with no cough, fever or shorness of breath. Mets can go from a 1 cm spot on the lung to the brain, liver, adrenal glands and other places before the pt even knows they have it. Lung cancer is striking in younger and younger people every day. They start smoking when they are 12 and when they are 35, they have lung cancer with mets.
If you know anyone who smokes, plead with them to stop
2006-07-09 06:27:19 · answer #1 · answered by happydawg 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i would ask... If the patient has a history of endometriosis... Couldn't this seed in the lungs and bleed profusely during menstrual periods? Ihave heard of patients having endometrium in the nose so they have nosebleeds during their periods.
Patients present with everything when they have an active cancer. There never is a concrete set of symptoms... there are traditional ones, but not ones that occur every time.
I say if you have doubts about procedures for biopsy get a second opinion, but hurry along about it.... if they are grading it as a 4th stage, where is the primary?
Did they do a body scan to stage it?
Ask to be informed
2006-07-09 05:31:14 · answer #2 · answered by PreviouslyChap 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely! Stage 4 can be due to size of neoplasm in the chest, but can also simply refer to spread. You can have a very small cancer in the chest providing no symptoms and be stage 4.
It is not uncommon for it to happen. Lung cancer spreads so fast often they see something on an x-ray, then move to CT, and then to PET/CT and find it has spread to bone, liver, brain, or other lung. That is one of the reasons we are getting so much better at treating it!
DO NOT GO BY CT SCANS THEY ARE NOT EVEN 70% ACCURATE. GET A PET/CT SCAN THEY ARE 95% ACCURATE. Sites seen on CT in the lungs are only 50% of being cancer. Get thebetter test. Doctors are not informed about the new info. Get a second opinion!
2006-07-09 06:03:11 · answer #3 · answered by james c 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
metastatic implies that it is secondary in the lungs so there must be a primary source of the cancer most commonly breast cancer metastasises in the lungs! Aso they would not say it is 4th stage unless they knew it had spread from elsewhere.
Ask more questions of your doctors they wont tell you unless you ask!!
2006-07-09 02:11:20 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes ! My mom is sick with cancer stage 4 metastatic with primary unknown When she was diagnosed she had no symptoms whatsoever she seemed to be healthy !
I would let the doctor do VATS that is what they had to do on my mom ! It went well ! Whoever this person is I wish her luck !
2006-07-09 11:10:29 · answer #5 · answered by Crazydays 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, if you have a patient like you describe, then the answer is right there.... Yes.
2006-07-09 01:57:10 · answer #6 · answered by ceprn 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋