11/13/2023 0 Comments White out lung meaning![]() ![]() If your nodule was found incidentally, you’ll need focused follow-up imaging. Any lung spot should be evaluated by an expert even if you don’t have serious risk factors for lung cancer. Therefore, people who have never smoked should not assume that they can’t have lung cancer. Important: For reasons no one understands, the incidence of lung cancer is rising among never-smokers, especially women. For everyone, however, the risk for lung cancer increases with age. Smokers have a higher risk for lung cancer…former smokers have a lower risk than active smokers…and nonsmokers have the lowest risk. Of course, smoking history is very significant. If you have a history of another malignancy somewhere in your body, your doctor will want to rule out a metastasis to the lungs. ![]() Have you had a cough, the flu or a severe cold? Do you have an autoimmune disease? Have you had any risky environmental exposures? These all have the potential to cause lung spots. Next, discuss your recent health and personal risk factors for lung cancer with your doctor. If the spot was present and hasn’t grown for many years, the chance that it is malignant is low. It is possible that the spot has been there for years but wasn’t previously identified. If you’ve been told that you have a spot on your lung, make an appointment with the doctor who knows you best to review your medical history…take stock of your lung cancer risk…and decide your next steps.įirst, your doctor, often in consultation with a radiologist, will want to compare the latest chest X-ray or CT scan with any previous imaging tests of your chest. People can be exposed while demolishing old buildings, for example, or by spending time in bat-filled caves. Environmental infection, such as histoplasmosis, caused by fungus spores in bird or bat droppings.Environmental irritants, such as asbestos, coal dust or silicone.Scarring from pulmonary fibrosis or other lung disease.Inflammation from an autoimmune disease-rheumatoid arthritis, for example, is a common cause of inflammatory lung nodules.Infection from tuberculosis, pneumonia, bronchitis or other illness involving the lungs.Many conditions that don’t have anything to do with cancer can cause a spot on the lung. When the spot is found incidentally-that is, during an imaging test that wasn’t given because cancer was suspected-the risk is even lower. ![]() In fact, when doctors screen high-risk patients (people over age 55 who have smoked roughly 30 “pack years”-a pack year is defined as smoking one pack of cigarettes a day for a year) specifically for lung cancer, only about 1% to 2% of nodules that are detected on CT scans are cancerous. Most lung spots (dense areas within the lung that appear as white, shadowyĪreas on imaging tests) are not cancer. Here are the steps you need to take to preserve your health and your sanity… Your first thought is, It might be lung cancer!…but take a deep breath. Then your doctor calls to say that the test unexpectedly detected a “spot” on your lung. Imagine for a moment that your doctor has told you to get a routine chest X-ray or CT scan because you are having chest pain…are about to have shoulder surgery…or may have cracked a rib. ![]()
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