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Original poster

Would you like to follow along? Is it Lung Cancer or not?

34 replies

PonyPals · 27/02/2026 03:18

I am only posting in here for traffic as I need some hand holding I guess.

My dad 68 (who is awesome and I am extremely close to) has not been feeling well, horrible cough and night sweats. Took him to the GP and they thought pneumonia. Same day Xray followed by a CT scan as they saw something on the lungs (can’t complain about Australian health care, they have been amazing)

they told us he has a 5.3cm mass with necrosis (dying tissue) which is what is probably causing the cough.

Referred to the lung cancer centre and they did a series of tests.

brain CT - clear
PET - clear no spread apart from mass and nearby nodes enlarged
Broncho biopsy- and we just got results and they are inconclusive… they said no malignant cells were found but some abnormal cells were found but they don’t know what they are.

They are still convinced it is cancer but want him to take antibiotics for 2 weeks and then do a CT guided biopsy.

i am so confused… one second it is cancer and now they are saying it might be an infection but most likely still Lung Cancer
I am so stressed and feel like I can’t eat or function

OP posts:
LongStoryLong · 27/02/2026 07:03

My DH had a lung infection a few years ago. The doctors were slightly different in that they were saying “we’re pretty sure it’s not cancer, but we just want to do ONE MORE TEST” and that went on for about 3 weeks (not UK). It was a terrifying time. Hope it works out for your family OP.

lifeisgoodrightnow · 27/02/2026 07:01

They’ll be aware that the type of mass showing as an infection is not normal in an otherwise healthy person so they’ll be reducing the mass ( or seeing if it reduces) with antibiotics and trying to get him well enough to manage the sedation for the guided ct. I’m not a medical professional but I’ve had pneumonia and been through this. Mine fortunately was ‘just’ pneumonia but I still had three years of ct scans to check the nodules they found didn’t grow so I swerved the guided ct.

Faceon · 27/02/2026 06:54

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Allaboutthecats · 27/02/2026 06:51

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Because this is part of staging for lung cancer.

OP it does all sound a bit worrying. Biopsy results are sometimes inconclusive because the needle caught a necrotic (dead) part of the mass. They may need to repeat the biopsy

Edited - just reread and see they are planning to do so.

Sorry you are going through this.

RosesAndHellebores · 27/02/2026 06:51

If it's any help @PonyPals (not an expert, not medical). The husband of a friend had similar about 10 years ago. It was eventually diagnosed as a fungal infection on the lung. It is chronic but treatable. He's never 100% but he's late 70s now.

Fingers crossed.

Faceon · 27/02/2026 06:46

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Faceon · 27/02/2026 06:45

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Vcal2017 · 27/02/2026 06:03

Also not a medical professional: but maybe they want to rule out a simple infection first? That way, after antibiotics, when things are a bit more settled, they can get an accurate picture of what it is. Sometimes an infection can elevate results or distort results.

FrodisCapering · 27/02/2026 03:20

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