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What Are The Symptoms Of Lung Cancer?
Question: A week ago I woke up with some chest pains and a fast heart beat and went to the emergency room.
All tests were fine except the ct scan showed an inflammation in my left lung.
The ER doctor looked at the ct results, consulted my primary care physician and suggested that it is most likely pneumonia.
I have no fever, no cough, no cold/flu symptoms. The only symptom I had was some chest/shoulder pain that one night.
Because I want to make sure that it is nothing dangerous I further consulted a friend of mine who is a radiologist (although he does not specialize in lunges).
He said that it is better to get it checked out with a pulmonologist to be 100% certain that it is nothing bad like cancer. He was particularly concerned because I had no major pneumonia symptoms.
Now I am getting some conflicting opinions from my primary care doctor, the er doctor and the radiologist.
I would like to know the following:
Would pneumonia show up in a similar way as a cancer on a CT scan?
Who is more likely to be correct in this situation? If it looked like cancer why didn’t the ER doctor suggest further testing?
I am not a smoker and have had breast cancer before on the right side 15 years ago.
All tests were fine except the ct scan showed an inflammation in my left lung.
The ER doctor looked at the ct results, consulted my primary care physician and suggested that it is most likely pneumonia.
I have no fever, no cough, no cold/flu symptoms. The only symptom I had was some chest/shoulder pain that one night.
Because I want to make sure that it is nothing dangerous I further consulted a friend of mine who is a radiologist (although he does not specialize in lunges).
He said that it is better to get it checked out with a pulmonologist to be 100% certain that it is nothing bad like cancer. He was particularly concerned because I had no major pneumonia symptoms.
Now I am getting some conflicting opinions from my primary care doctor, the er doctor and the radiologist.
I would like to know the following:
Would pneumonia show up in a similar way as a cancer on a CT scan?
Who is more likely to be correct in this situation? If it looked like cancer why didn’t the ER doctor suggest further testing?
I am not a smoker and have had breast cancer before on the right side 15 years ago.
Brief Answer:
Get done broncoscopy and XXXXXXX analysis.
Detailed Answer:
Thanks for your question on HCM.
I can understand your situation and problem.
Lung cancer usually starts with lung nodule.
Then it slowly enlarges and become large malignant mass.
But cancer can grow as infiltration or consolidation or ground glass appearance, especially in adenocarcinoma of lung.
At the same time, pneumonia is also having either infiltration or consolidation or ground glass appearance.
As a rule in pneumonia, symptoms appear first before radiological changes. And fever with cough is the classical symptom for pneumonia.
Both these are absent in your case.
You are also having breast cancer in the past.
So possibility of early lung cancer can not be denied in your case.
For 100% confirmation, you need to consult pulmonologist and get done broncoscopy with XXXXXXX (bronchoalveolar lavage) analysis.
If organism is isolated then it is due to pneumonia and if atypical cells are seen then it is mostly due to cancer.
I want to know the detailed CT report or image, so that I can guide you better.
I will be happy to help you further.
Wish you good health.
Thanks.
Get done broncoscopy and XXXXXXX analysis.
Detailed Answer:
Thanks for your question on HCM.
I can understand your situation and problem.
Lung cancer usually starts with lung nodule.
Then it slowly enlarges and become large malignant mass.
But cancer can grow as infiltration or consolidation or ground glass appearance, especially in adenocarcinoma of lung.
At the same time, pneumonia is also having either infiltration or consolidation or ground glass appearance.
As a rule in pneumonia, symptoms appear first before radiological changes. And fever with cough is the classical symptom for pneumonia.
Both these are absent in your case.
You are also having breast cancer in the past.
So possibility of early lung cancer can not be denied in your case.
For 100% confirmation, you need to consult pulmonologist and get done broncoscopy with XXXXXXX (bronchoalveolar lavage) analysis.
If organism is isolated then it is due to pneumonia and if atypical cells are seen then it is mostly due to cancer.
I want to know the detailed CT report or image, so that I can guide you better.
I will be happy to help you further.
Wish you good health.
Thanks.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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