I am a white married 68 year old male. I haven t smoked since 1980. In June of this year I came down with pneumonia. 3 X-rays and 2 CT scans since I have a nodule in my upper portion of my left lung. They did biopsy on my lymph nodes and they came back negative. The nodule biopsy came back as a typical cells. now they want to do another CT scan with needle biopsy to get more information and next step would be take half the lung out to remove nodule. I am active and feel fine. My question is this, cant they just monitor the area instead of all these probes?
Diagnosing a pulmonary nodule can be a tricky feat. The best approach is to determine the likelihood of the nodule being cancerous or malignant. Having a smoking history is of course the strongest risk factor for cancer. The presence of atypical cells is also concerning for the possibility of cancer, although this by itself is not diagnostic. At this point, you can decide between removal of the nodule versus very close monitoring of the nodule with serial CT scans. Removal of the nodule may involve removing an entire lobe or just a segment, depending on the size of it. Monitoring with CT scans is an option, but you should talk to your doctor more about the characteristics of the nodule. There may be other factors that made your doctor feel that leaving the nodule there is risky. To summarize, both serial CT scans and removal of the nodule are options. Which one you choose should be based on the characteristics of the nodule, your risk factors, and the changes of the nodules on serial CT scans. I hope this provides some clarity to your situation.