ug2215
07-11-2011, 01:36 AM
I am a 57 year old who smoked regularly for 15 years. My mother died of lung cancer and did not smoke or participate in any activities known to increase lung cancer incidence.
A 5 cm mass has been detected and confirmed by CT scan in my left lung. I have had a slight fever on a couple of occasions in the past 2 weeks but show no symptoms of respiratory infection. My white blood cell count is not elevated as is indicative of infection. I feel pain in the area around my bronchia, approximately where my bronchia meet the trachea. I am concerned that the mass is a tumor and that it has already spread to the proximal lymph nodes. My doctor has me on a course of levoflaxin for 2 to 3 weeks before another CT scan. If the mass has not reduced in size, the next step is a biopsy followed by a PET scan.
My question is, why shouldn’t I get the PET scan now? If my suspicions of malignancy are correct early detection has already passed. Wouldn’t rapid diagnosis be the primary objective in order to start treatment as soon as possible? My symptoms, no raised leukocyte count and mass in the lung, are not consistent with infection but are consistent with cancer. A PET scan would detect the greatly increased sugar consumption of cancers and be less costly than the biopsy. Why wait to shrink the mass with antibiotics and run another CT?
A 5 cm mass has been detected and confirmed by CT scan in my left lung. I have had a slight fever on a couple of occasions in the past 2 weeks but show no symptoms of respiratory infection. My white blood cell count is not elevated as is indicative of infection. I feel pain in the area around my bronchia, approximately where my bronchia meet the trachea. I am concerned that the mass is a tumor and that it has already spread to the proximal lymph nodes. My doctor has me on a course of levoflaxin for 2 to 3 weeks before another CT scan. If the mass has not reduced in size, the next step is a biopsy followed by a PET scan.
My question is, why shouldn’t I get the PET scan now? If my suspicions of malignancy are correct early detection has already passed. Wouldn’t rapid diagnosis be the primary objective in order to start treatment as soon as possible? My symptoms, no raised leukocyte count and mass in the lung, are not consistent with infection but are consistent with cancer. A PET scan would detect the greatly increased sugar consumption of cancers and be less costly than the biopsy. Why wait to shrink the mass with antibiotics and run another CT?