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Cancer

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Can doctors suspect cancer despite scans showing no obvious malignancy?

1 reply

Imnotperfecteither · 27/08/2026 22:23

in January mum was admitted to hospital and following bloods being taken we were told she needed a blood transfusion, which was done that night. A further transfusion followed a week later. She also had a scan which showed an area of concern in her bowel and an endoscopy which was clear.
fast forward to 2 weeks ago and she was admitted needing another transfusion. she was unable to have a colonoscopy due to being too frail.

a CT colonography was done last week and had a phone call last night to say they showed no obvious malignancy.

this is where I’m confused - they said the scan showed thickening of her colon wall and although scans show no malignancy, the way she is clinically presenting means a high probability of cancer.

she has an urgent referral to the Lower Gastro team to take a look, but again as a biopsy cannot be taken, they can’t be certain can they?!

OP posts:
WellConfusedandDazed · 28/08/2026 06:26

CT can miss small cancers which is why they probably wanted to do a biopsy.

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