Lung cancer or metastatic breast cancer

[IShouldNotCoco]

My dp went to A&E with chest pain a few weeks ago and they found a suspicious mass on his lung that is 3cm long, is a rectangular shape and, he said, looks kind of like it has fungi growing out of it when he looked at the scan. The oncologist was very concerned and said that it looks like cancer to him.

He is 56 and had male breast cancer back in 2011 that went into remission (stage 3). I’m obviously very upset and worried, especially as we have a 5 year old dd.

Is this more likely to be primary lung cancer or metastatic disease? Luckily, he’s managed to have a PET scan done today instead of waiting 3 weeks.

Mumsnet can't diagnose, only his oncologist can but he's having tests and being investigated. It's a nerve wracking time for sure but you all need to hold your nerve until you know what you're dealing with

I know MN can’t diagnose but it’s confusing because I thought you had to have a biopsy to confirm cancer and the oncologist said he’s sure it is cancer.

A biopsy would confirm it but in sone cases those that deal with these cases day in and out can often have a pretty good idea from other means.

Not quite the same, but I had bowel cancer and it was pretty obvious even to untrained me during the colonoscopy that what we were looking at on the camera screen was a cancerous tumour, and I was told straight afterwards that they were 99% sure it was cancer - I was booked in for surgery even before the biopsy results came back to confirm it.

I'm sorry you are both going through this - I wish you both well

It could be a totally new cancer. It’s very hard waiting for the diagnosis and further tests but try hard not to speculate. Once he has a treatment plan you'll hopefully be able to deal with it better.

Thank you - you’re right of course. I hope they have caught it early.

It’s most likely metastatic breast cancer. Occam’s razor. Also that was what it was when my mum was in a similar situation. She was referred to the lung cancer clinic with a mass on her lung found on X Ray but she had survived breast cancer 5 years before. It was obvious from the appearance and her symptoms that it was cancer but they had to do biopsies to ultimately determine what kind it was. I was glad it was breast cancer because lung cancer is less treatable. She had a number of successful medications and survived a further 8 years after the metastatic cancer diagnosis with a good quality of life for most of that.

It could be either. MBC can often metastasise unfortunately. I had primary BC 16 years ago and it returned in the lung.

Many oncologists can often “ tell” if a mass looks suspicious, even on a CT or MRI.

Wishing you all strength with this journey. Remember, there are many good treatments available now. Let’s hope DP can get some treatment soon.

No one can really say for sure of course until he’s had the investigations. I do very much hope it is nothing sinister at all or that whatever it is turns out to be very treatable.

We got the PET scan results and my dp saw a consultant who specialises in lung cancer. After seeing him, I feel a little bit more hopeful. Basically, the only area currently lighting up is the larger mass on the lung which is currently about the size of a grape. The rest of his body looks normal, according to the PET scan.

The consultant seems to feel that even if this mass is cancer, it can be ‘sorted’. He was a lot more positive with his approach and said that he’s going to move to find out what it is by the end of this week via biopsy.

Thanks for the update - it sounds hopeful

So, you were correct @ThePure - it’s metastatic breast cancer. So my dp’s lung cancer doctor has moved quickly to transfer his case back to the original oncology team.

I guess we will have to wait to see how it should be treated. The lung specialist said that if it had been primary lung cancer, he would have recommended doing surgery to remove the tumour immediately but obviously breast cancer is a whole different thing.

Sending a UnMNetty hug.
Hope a plan of action is put into place soon and the necessary treatment starts.
Take care.

Thank you. I’m worried he won’t want to engage with treatment as he’s been talking about taking Ivermectin.

I find that if I go with him to see doctors though, he seems to take on board what they say a bit more.

If it’s a metastatic cancer they will not usually try to resect it surgically as it has already spread per definition but the good news is that breast cancer is often very susceptible to hormonal treatment. My mum lived for 8 years after her stage 4 diagnosis and for most of that time she had a very good quality of life and you would not have known she had it despite extensive liver, lung and bone mets.
When mum had the hormone treatment (letrozole and then exemastane) it initially shrunk the tumours down a lot and relieved her symptoms. She also had some targeted radiotherapy to the lung and bone mets at times that also helped.

I guess it’s a huge shock just now and he might say all kinds of things but I hope in the end he follows medical advice because there are very good treatments available that might not be a cure but can still be effective.

Thank you. His cancer was receptor positive so I’m assuming that hormonal treatments would be recommended. It’s good to hear that your mum had a good quality of life even though she had extensive mets.

The pathology team will repeat the hormone markers on the biopsy so they'll have the best information possible on treatment options. There are also other genetic tests that the oncology team may request (but that very much depends on what treatment DH has already had, if the hormone markers are expressed or not etc). I'm sure the ivermectin is just panicked talk (it's an anti-parasite drug, nothing to do with treating cancer). Hopefully once his team have all the information they need from the biopsy, imaging etc and have a plan he'll find it easier to engage. Sorry you're both going through this.

I'm post-menopausal and currently taking hormonal treatment (Letrozole) for endometrial cancer whcih has spread to lymph nodes. It's just a daily tablet and it's early days but I'm very hopeful that that it will be enough to control the cancer and allow me to live a normal life for many years to come..

The only side effect so far is hot flushes ....

I wish you and your DP well.

See if you can get him to connect with some male breast cancer support groups on Facebook. I found having support from others going through it was really important. There are also very few men engaged in support groups generally. If he can specifically find a group for men, he’ll be in a much more comfortable and supportive place. They can hopefully demystify some of the treatment approaches and re-direct him from all this anti-treatment stuff he’s tapping into.

Update;

We saw the oncologist he chose today who specialises in breast cancer and he said that although they will never be able to take this away completely, it should certainly be treatable and he’s probably got years ahead of him.

He said that it’s far preferable to have MBC in the lung than primary lung cancer, which he said ‘is a nasty, nasty thing’.

He’s recommended either surgery to remove the mass and / or hormone therapy and / or radiation. But he expects the tumour to shrink and he thinks that any further spread can be controlled.

@IShouldNotCoco

That's really good news.

I'm on hormone therapy treatment myself for endometrial cancer that's spread to my lymph nodes, and my consultant has told me it should fully control the cancer and give me good life expectancy. It's just a daily tablet to take and so far the only side effect is hot flushes .

That’s great to hear. I’m really glad it’s working for you. It does seem that hormone therapy is the way forward for some cancers doesn’t it? I am just hoping that he continues to engage with traditional medicine because every now and again he starts talking about curing it with vitamin C. 🤦🏻‍♀️