Abnormal cells

[Qwerty500]

hello!

I’m just wanting some help on something we are quiet distressed with at the moment,

My nan has been told she has lung cancer,

She went for a PET Scan which showed 3 red areas (bowel, lung, spine)

We were told these are abnormal cells.

She’s now waiting on more tests which are weeks away until we get closer to even finding out what’s going on.

Has anyone had anything like this before?

Do abnormal cells always mean cancer?

Thank you xxx

[Denzie]

Only a biopsy can confirm cancer. A PET scan shows activity that is higher than normal. It does not show cells and it does not diagnose cancer. There are other things that can cause high PET scan SUV results. Irritation, allergies, injury, other illnesses all can contribute to an elevated SUV. In the lungs other things that can cause an elevated SUV include a recent cold, or chest infection, air pollution, fumes from cleaning agents

Getting a diagnosis can be a bit of a marathon rather than a sprint. They need to make certain that they are not doing an unnecessary procedure and risking unnecessary side effects.

[Qwerty500 in reply to Denzie]

thank you so much for your reply that’s helped massively xx

[JanetteR57]

Sorry to read of your distress at your nan's situation - there can be other causes which is why lung cancer cannot be diagnosed from imaging alone - the raft of tests are necessary to determine what something is - rule things out as well as in. There are many treatments now for lung cancer so if it does turn out to be that finding out specific details including from any biopsies (looking for mutations) to ensure the best treatment is used are carried out.

If several areas light up, more investigations will be done as cancers spread, there is no way of knowing until these extra tests are done to determine which one might be the primary if it is cancer - as bowel cancer can spread to the lung, lung cancer can spread to the spine and treatment agents might be different.

No imaging technique is infallible - there are false positives and false negatives - not all tumours light up on PET scans and some lighting up may be inflammation or other cause.

It's a worrying time so finding a way to deal with the waiting is important as anxiety for you and your nan can bring its own physical symptoms that won't help anyone - worrying doesn't change the results.

I don't know if it reassures at all but even if it is cancer, it's not all doom and gloom. It's 12 years this week since my diagnosis of lung cancer and I had successful treatment - my dad had bowel cancer twice in his late 50s and we didn't think he'd get to 60 - he will be 93 next month and had another bowel cancer and yet more radical surgery in 2016 at the age of 86. New treatments are being trialled and approved all the time so never give up.

Good luck to you and your family at this difficult time but try not to get ahead of yourselves until you have the actual results and a treatment plan - worrying about the 'what if' is often far more scary than facing the 'what is' when we actually know. take care roycastle.org/about-lung-ca...

[RoyCastleHelpline Partner Ask the Nurse Roy Castle]

Hello Qwerty500

Going through the diagnostic process is very stressful, there are lots of tests, procedures, waiting for results takes time, often causing patients and their loved ones a great deal of anxiety. The team want to build up a complete picture of the type cancer and if it has spread anywhere else in the body, this is called staging.

Staging is important because as it helps the team to know what treatments will work best for the specific type of cancer that your nan has.

Part of this staging process is a PET scan, cancer cells have a higher metabolic rate and show up as bright spots on a PET scan, as Denzie and JeanetteR57 have said a PET scan on its own is not diagnostic as there are other reasons where cells can have increased metabolic rate giving a false positive such as infection, inflammation, allergy etc. All test results need to be reported and looked at together before a diagnosis and treatment plan is given.

Below I have added the link to our booklet Managing Your Lung Cancer Diagnosis, this has information on staging and includes PET scans

roycastle.org/app/uploads/2...

If you would like to discuss anything you can email ask the nurse at [e-mail] or call our free phone nurse led helpline number on 0800 385 7200 Monday to Thursday 0900-1700 and Friday 0900-1600

Kind regards

The Roy Castle Support Team