Hi Chetan
My husband had PET/CT's done in Jan. Mar, Jun/2011 bacause each time the scan showed activity with the area growing larger and lighting up stronger but the Dr could never find any visual signs of cancer nor did an ultrasound show any "areas" and my husband did not feel like the cancer had returned and doing an exploration surgery was not an option for our Dr. or us. So the decision was always made to wait and see for 3 more months, take antibiotics in case the area was an infection not visable to the eye. Finally in Sept the PET/CT came back with no areas of concern! We were preparing ourselves for the worst. The waiting is not fun but don't give up hope, it took a year but he got a clear scan! Now 1 down and 4 more years to go!

Hi Karen,

Thanks for the response. Congratulations on a clear scan at the end of the first year. I am sure that both of you feel very relieved as a result.

I was curious regarding the areas where the three PET scans lit up? Also what infection area was the antibiotic supposed to treat. By chance was it suspected infection in the lung? I recall that during my RTX/Chemo treatment I had this constant low grade fever and there was no infection that we found. I did not take any antibiotic at the time and am wondering if possibly some remnant infection is left over that I am unaware of.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Chetan

Hello Everyone,

I have a quick question regarding MD Anderson, and would appreciate any thoughts.

When my RO said there is no cure if the cancer has spread to the lung, I contacted MD Andersen with the hope that they have some study that would offer a ray of hope. After 3 weeks of follow-up, I finally have an appointment with a doctor there the week of 11/14.

I live in Portland, OR. Does it make sense to go to MD Andersen for a possible clinical study? Have any of you done this, and if you did, any pointers on your experience would be greatly appreciated.

My lungs have always been healthy, and the nodules are therefore especially even more troublesome. I supposed (and am hoping) that the nodules are due to silent aspiration, but the docs locally do not believe it is. In fact they seem to think it is mets. Until they do a biopsy (which I am not sure I should do given the risks I have read about) I will never know for sure.

Any thoughts or words of experience greatly appreciated. Have a great weekend, and thanks for the constant support all along. When I get well, I hope to give back to this great community.

Take care,
Chetan

Do whatever you can and have a biopsy! Seriously! If they have a clinical trial go for it. But first ind out for ire if it's cancer. Good luck!

My doctor also thought I had mets to the lungs. I did a biopsy. It was in a tough spot and the doctor nicked a blood vessel so he only got one tissue sample instead of the desired three (one sample tissue, two samples blood). They said the tissue sample came back negative with inflammation but they termed the procedure �inconclusive� without the other two clean samples.
We are now just watching to see if the spots get larger but the negative sample sure gave me some relief and the doctors seem to be more worried about my lymph node now than the lungs.
Get the biopsy. My ENT was sure it was cancer because of the location of the spots (high in the lung). The RO said it could certainly be from aspiration even that high up.