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What Are The Symptoms Of Potential Cancer?
My father went for a recent chest X-ray, a small shadow was found and he is waiting to have a scan, he has lost some weight, he stopped smoking 9 years ago after many years of being a smoker, he has had pneumonia twice, once when he was a baby and another time when he was in his late 50s, I m so worried, is it likely to be lung cancer??
Thu, 27 Nov 2014
Thanks for your question on HCM.
Shadow on the chest x ray is very tricky and needs CT THORAX if
1. Patient is past heavy smoker
2. Age more than 50 years
So CT SCAN is must.
Depending on CT findings we can plan further lone of management.
If shadow is
1.Irregular in shape and having irregular margins
2. Absence of calcification
3. Enlarged lymphnodes in mediastinum etc than possibility of malignant nodule is more.
And we need to get done biopsy from the lesion to rule out cancer and reach to final diagnosis.
So CT THORAX is must in his case.
Shadow on the chest x ray is very tricky and needs CT THORAX if
1. Patient is past heavy smoker
2. Age more than 50 years
So CT SCAN is must.
Depending on CT findings we can plan further lone of management.
If shadow is
1.Irregular in shape and having irregular margins
2. Absence of calcification
3. Enlarged lymphnodes in mediastinum etc than possibility of malignant nodule is more.
And we need to get done biopsy from the lesion to rule out cancer and reach to final diagnosis.
So CT THORAX is must in his case.
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