#1, Get an new Dr. Cancer spread is the difference between stage 1 and stage 4.
#2 Have no SURGERIES until diagnosis.
#3 Have no Surgeries once cancer, (IF) treatment is started. The weakened body cannot cope with two major events and never seems to rally again.
#4 Make sure they get a needle biopsy if possible or do a brocoscope to get the biopsy tissue.
#5 Whan seeing an Oncologist be your own advocate, read, study, talk to survivors. My husband is a 1+3 survivor, one year past his 3 months. YOU can live with cancer. He still works full time.
#6 Make sure your oncologist is in the fight. There are meds to help one through all the symptoms of cancer. Steroids to help you through chemo, 4 nausea drugs or MORE to help with the nausea, Bone growth drugs and on and on. READ
#7 Subscribe to CURE, a FREE magazine of cancer updates, research and education.
Empower yourself and then fight. My spouse is LIVING with cancer.
#8 You can use up a lot of energy being frightened, use it for a better purpose.
We learned the hard way. I hope for Good luck and best wishes for you and yours. God bless you and keep you. D

please get a second opinion, even a third one. Nodules are nothing to mess with,I know this first hand. I watched a 3mm nodule in my left lung for 2 years, every 3 months i went in and had a scan done with no changes. They call it the wait and watch approach. Well i did as they said and now i'm 4th stage lung cancer with mets to my right ovary. I was only 39 years old when i was diagnosed. I had my left lung removed along with all my female organs, gall bladder and appendics followed with 6 months of chemotherapy. Even if it ends up being nothing i would not choose wait and watch every 3months.Be aggressive with your doctors its your life your fighting for. I pray its nothing and you find out soon.

Thank you so much for the information. How do I subscribe to CURE?I am going to the doctor on Tuesday and we are going to have a long talk. I am not one to play the waiting game. I am not going to do that! I appreciate anything you can tell me. Thanks again. Fern

I'm glad I found these posts because I'm going thru the same problem with waiting til the nodules get bigger. I don't understand it, but have to do first steps after the catscan, and that's the pulmonary doctor this week and will pick her brain some.

Thank you again for the support.

I was a Stage 1A back in Oct. 06. Surgery for 1.5 cn, no further treatment. A 8mm showed up on Cat scan this passed December too. Too small to even biopsy so I was sent for a Pet Scan which proved it to be matastic. This is what you need to determain if it is active (hot). The Stress alone is a killer, I would want to know now.

Hello... thank you for posting, and I read that with real interest because I have a nodule on my thryoid and a spot on my chest/lymp node. I'm not sure why doctors want to wait til they change size to do anything, and wonder if it were their family if they would have that wait and see approach. Maybe they would, but as you said the stress and anxiety add up.

When you get time, will you write and let us know what you've been up to treatment wise and how you're feeling?

We went on line and subscribed to Cure. We have since seen it in hospitals and Dr. offices and they have subscription placards in them...easiest is on line.

Has anyone heard of Zeolite? I have been reading alot about this. They say it helps in killing cancer sells.

They found a nodule on my husband's right lung during a ct on his abdomen: a follow up ct of the lung shows increased measurement and now mentions the plural of 'node'...we are in shock waitng for pulmo appt on monday. He is so afraid and I'm trying not to act panicked for his sake. A few weeks ago we took our health for granted, now we are live in fear for the future. I know people here have gone through this same fear and I try to concentrate on a positive attitude these days. The waiting is nothing short of torture!

The reply of rodriq is one perspective, probably colored by a family member's diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. One cannot always base a general view on one experience so let me provide a different perspective.

#1, Get an new Dr.
Cancer spread is the difference between stage 1 and stage 4.

A 2 month delay is unlikely to change a stage 1 to a stage 4 tumor. Some growths do little; monitoring makes sense and is one valid perspective. My mother-in-law had a small tumor, we did nothing because she has other serious conditions, and the tumor did nothing over the remainder of her life.


#2 Have no SURGERIES until diagnosis. No one is suggesting surgery, the first step if some growth is seen would be a biopsy.

#3 Have no Surgeries once cancer, (IF) treatment is started. The weakened body cannot cope with two major events and never seems to rally again.

#4 Make sure they get a needle biopsy if possible or do a brocoscope to get the biopsy tissue. One valid approach is Rodriq's suggestion to have a biopsy, while others would not suggest that approach for a solitary pulmonary nodule until they saw what they growth did. What was her smoking history.

#5 Whan seeing an Oncologist be your own advocate, read, study, talk to survivors. My husband is a 1+3 survivor, one year past his 3 months. YOU can live with cancer. He still works full time. Good, agreed.

#6 Make sure your oncologist is in the fight. There are meds to help one through all the symptoms of cancer. Steroids to help you through chemo, 4 nausea drugs or MORE to help with the nausea, Bone growth drugs and on and on.

I would add that substitution of carboplatin for cisplatin can reduce the incidence of nausea and you are correct that newer drugs can help prevent nausea.

#7 Subscribe to CURE, a FREE magazine of cancer updates, research and education.
Empower yourself and then fight. My spouse is LIVING with cancer. Agreed this is a good journal.

#8 You can use up a lot of energy being frightened, use it for a better purpose.
We learned the hard way. I hope for Good luck and best wishes for you and yours. God bless you and keep you. D Agreed

I too had a lung nodule.
I reduced its size by a daily helping of anti-inflammatory berries.
Go to my pictures OR Go here:
http://www.goji-plants.com
Best wishes,
Ossie

I understand how nervous this is making you. 8 mm is very small about the size of an average pearl and most likely wouldn't have showed up on an Xray. It is quite normal to wait three months between CTs to do so any sooner would probably not show significant changes.

Should your next CT show increased size then it would be time to evaluate what to do next and what type of specialist to see? From this point there are many options, my team and my husbands was the same and consisted of a Pulmonologist, Oncologist and Thoracic Surgeon. Our PCP is kept in the loop because even cancer patients have other problems not related to their cancer.

My husbands was found at 1-1/2 cm and considered to small for any biopsy. A PET scan was done which indicated by the uptake that it was probably cancer. He opted for VATS (Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery) biopsy in the hospital. Had it not been cancer they would have sewed him up and sent him home the next day. But it was cancer and they continued with the surgery removing a section of his upper left lobe. He was stage 1A

My lung cancer was found by accident and misdiagnosed pneumonia. I got a second opinion it was a 7-1/2 x 6-1/2 cm tumor. I had no options but to get the thing out, at that size I was very lucky surgery was the recommended option, it's the gold standard for lung cancer. That was three years ago then I was stage 1B.

Obviously in a lung cancer group, people are concerned about tumors, and the spread and progression while undiagnosed. What the doctor recommended is standard, since the growth is very small, and the patient is asymptomatic.