Hey there,
Until a few days ago, I didn't even know my actual diagnosis, so I've been obsessively reading everything I can get my hands on. I think I saw a post once—maybe on some patient advocacy forum, I can't find it anymore—about someone with an inoperable lung tumor where the reason it couldn't be operated on was because of adrenal metastases. I can't find that thread now, so I'm just typing this out from memory while my head is spinning with all this info. Anyway, I remember seeing a doctor mention that those things might not actually be metastases, but honestly, I can't recall exactly what he said or how that case ended up turning out.
Long story short, I have non-small cell carcinoma that’s considered inoperable due to an adrenal metastasis. This thing was flagged based on a CT scan, but they haven't done a biopsy or any cytological confirmation yet.
Looking at that first story and this:
"Adrenal gland metastases are relatively common (about 33%) in patients with lung cancer. Any suspicious tumor mass found during diagnostics should be checked via biopsy to rule out the frequent possibility of a benign growth."
taken from http://webmd.com/lung-cancer-guide...non-small-cell/
I'm wondering, what are the odds that this is actually a benign growth instead of a metastasis? And who should I even talk to about getting this verified—should I push my pulmonologist, or is this something my oncologist will handle once I finally see them?
Until a few days ago, I didn't even know my actual diagnosis, so I've been obsessively reading everything I can get my hands on. I think I saw a post once—maybe on some patient advocacy forum, I can't find it anymore—about someone with an inoperable lung tumor where the reason it couldn't be operated on was because of adrenal metastases. I can't find that thread now, so I'm just typing this out from memory while my head is spinning with all this info. Anyway, I remember seeing a doctor mention that those things might not actually be metastases, but honestly, I can't recall exactly what he said or how that case ended up turning out.
Long story short, I have non-small cell carcinoma that’s considered inoperable due to an adrenal metastasis. This thing was flagged based on a CT scan, but they haven't done a biopsy or any cytological confirmation yet.
Looking at that first story and this:
"Adrenal gland metastases are relatively common (about 33%) in patients with lung cancer. Any suspicious tumor mass found during diagnostics should be checked via biopsy to rule out the frequent possibility of a benign growth."
taken from http://webmd.com/lung-cancer-guide...non-small-cell/
I'm wondering, what are the odds that this is actually a benign growth instead of a metastasis? And who should I even talk to about getting this verified—should I push my pulmonologist, or is this something my oncologist will handle once I finally see them?