Dear Group
I am hoping that a few of you out there who have experience with lung cancer can help me. I have a relative (in late 80's) who recently had a pet scan with a finding of "lung mass is consistent with malignancy." ?The size of the mass (also termed "nodule") in the report is" 2.6 cm x 2.4 cm, maximum SUV 5.8" ?and "abuts the major fissure and has two pleural tails" (not sure what the latter means) No other nodule or mass was identified. An appointment is scheduled with the pulmonologist next week. ?In preparation for that appointment, I would like to ask the following questions:?
1. Is a biopsy the only way to definitely determine lung cancer? ?My concern is that a) this is invasive and b) one test seems to be leading to another and then additional scans are scheduled .... it never ends . ?
2. Since we know that the body uses "encapsulation" to ?sequester irregular cells, ?what are the dangers with a biopsy for lung cancer -- e.g. could it cause metastasis elsewhere?
3. ?Assuming the answer to 1 is yes, ?given the size of the nodule, would it be prudent to just go straight to alternative treatment such as Budwig Protocol?
4. ?The doctor has mentioned something like 6 radiation treatments but I don't find a lot online about radiation. Seems like it might be external beam radiation? Does anyone have any experience positive or negative that they could share with radiation treatments for lung cancer? ?
5. Given that the patient is late 80's and lung cancer seems to have a high tendency to metastasize , what questions or factors might guide your decision as to whether to proceed with mainstream or alternative treatment? ?
When I have tried to research lung cancer online, all that comes up are a lot of medical sites devoted to mainstream treatment. You rarely see patients blogs which is why it is so nice to be able to come before this group and ask these kinds of questions.
Thank you very much
Monica
