I havent posted in a while, but am interested to hear any comments .....my husband just had his FIRST post treatment CT scan......as some of you know, he had an upper left lobectomy in Feb., then 16 weeks of chemo, and finished 6 weeks of Radiation in mid sept.....so now to the first scan.....as we all do, I was hoping to hear NED ....but instead the report came back "stable"....I of course wondered, why stable? When I spoke to our ONC, he informed me there were TINY nodules in the lower left lobe....he emphasized tiny....and went on to say at least 23% of the population have these tiny spots.....said they were there on the July scan (never told us)...that scan found blood clots, but there was no mention of tiny nodules.....SOOOOO, he feels they are not to worry about and we will see again in 6 months at next scan.....I want to believe there is nothing to worry about, but so hard wondering what they are ...there was no mention of them in Feb. at diagnosis, prior to surgery.....
He also just began Tarceva, which is being given purely as a maintenance regimen, at Sloans suggestion. He is EGFR positive so they feel there is possible benefit to its helping to prevent recurrences....so our tarceva questions are for separate post....I am interested to hear any comments on this first scan info.....Thanks in advance......janet
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First Post treatment Scan News......hmmmm?????
- By jdmo
- Posted October 31, 2009 at 11:28 am · 5 replies
- In Non-small cell lung cancer - Stage III
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- By pw
- Posted October 31, 2009 at 12:00 pm
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My husband was NED for about 2 years following his surgery back in 2001 but when he had another one of his follow up scans in 2003, they discovered a small tumor along with a lot of those tiny little ones in both lungs. They radiated the small tumor and "killed" it but there really was no way to go after all the little ones for obvious reasons. So, they placed him on Tarceva and Avastin every two weeks. It was right around the time that Tarceva was first being used for Lung Cancer patients, so even the Drs. were learning how patients responded to it. My husband was on a very low dose 25 mgs, with awesome results for almost two years. He had the usual side effects mainly from the Tarceva and hardly any from the Avastin, maybe just fatigue. Take the Tarceva at night to combat the fatigue and ask for a topical antibiotic (Clindamycin gel) for the rash that may occur. There is also an oral antibiotic if it gets bad enough. My husband started out at 150 mg dose but couldn't tolerate the rash. Again, he was only on a 25 mg dose and did well. Good luck to you!
- By AliceL
- Posted October 31, 2009 at 12:56 pm
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I have had 4 scans at this point, the first two were not a problem, but the 3rd and 4th each picked up something that, according to the radiologist who read the scan, was not present on the previous scan. The first time this happened I freaked out, but then my onc. went back and looked at the other earlier scans, and the nodules or whatever were there. Each scan was read by a different radiologist, and each either focused on different things, or read things different and apparently only compared the scan they were reading to the one just prior - not to the earlier scans. It might give you some peace of mind if you post this question to Dr. West at cancer grace.
- By CKP
- Posted October 31, 2009 at 1:28 pm
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I have the same thing. My doctor said it is probably histoplasmosis. They've been there for four years (that I know of, no telling how long before that!) with no change.
I know this is nerve-wracking, but as time goes on and there continues to be no change it will be something you barely think about. My doctor doesn't even mention it anymore.
Hugs,
Cindy
- By cards7up
- Posted October 31, 2009 at 2:43 pm
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They will tell you stable is good. And it is. The tarceva should help and all you can do is wait until next scan. That is the way of this disease. I beleive even Dr. West will say stable is good. Take care, JC
P.S. Just make sure he eats well.
- By brooklynda
- Posted November 1, 2009 at 5:28 pm
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Dear Janet:
I was really glad to hear that Mark's results were "stable". From what I understand, that is very good.
As far as the nodules go, I was told that I also have them and that they were more than likely old scar tissue, but they had to track them for a while to make certain they didn't change. I was also told that many people, not only lung cancer patients, have them.
I am uncertain if this is similar to what Mark's report showed or not. But if so, to this date, mine have not changed.
So, I am going to say "Congratulations on a stable report!" That's great!
Blessings!
Brooklynda
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