Posted By: Anita210 lung symptoms - 09-16-2003 07:20 PM
My husband (stage 4 tonsil cancer) is scheduled for a CAT scan in three weeks to evaluate "infiltrate" in his lungs that was seen on last CAT scan. I have been doing some research and it seems that "unresoved infiltrate after diagnosis of pneumonia" is a symptom of lung cancer...when the infiltrate is still there after about 3 months. He was diagnosed with pneumonia a few days after last radiation/chemo and the last CAT scan was done 3 months past this pneumonia treatment. So now I'm getting worried and know that the 3 weeks until the CAT scan to re-evaluate are going to be difficult. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this. The ENT called it fibrosis from the pneumonia.

Thanks,
Anita
Posted By: Gary Re: lung symptoms - 09-17-2003 05:11 AM
Scans are only part of the puzzle. The ENT gave you a key piece of information. Fibrosis of the lungs is defined as scar tissue (a natural result of pneumonia). Scar lasts forever in the lungs I believe. In my experience the radiologists do a lot of speculation about what they encounter and leave it to the other doctors to interpret it. Their reports can be downright scary. They are being very cautious because of the stage.
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