Shadow on lung..please help with info

[purplepeony]

My BF who is 52 has had 2 chest X rays as she has had a tickly cough off and on for a while. 2nd X ray today confirmed it was a shadow.
She is very worried and waiting for a private referral.

She has never smoked and her DH doesn't smoke, nor has she worked in a smoky atmosphere or anywhere with toxic fumes etc. She does live in central London and there are lots of fumes.

Has anyone got an idea why she should have this and what can it be- apart from cancer? Would something like pnemonia give a shadow?

Yes or a chest infection. I have a friend who had this about a year after suffering cancer. She was obviously terrified but it was just an infection.

Hope your friend is OK.

Thanks- but why would her GP refer her to a consultant if he thought ( could he tell?) it was an infection? Or do they need to do more tests to see if it is an infection?

I had shadow picked up on xray - it turned out to be a type of allergic pneumonia (BOOP) triggered by an earlier virus. I think it is usual to get specialist advise as further tests are required to work out what is the cause of the shadow - the xray alone does not give enough information- lots of things give coughs and lung shadows. I was told it could be any number of things and the xray findings confirmed the lungs were a good place to start! I was also told it might be a 'red herring'. A private referral is an excellent idea as it gets things moving as soon as possible.
If you want to know about investigations well I had a HRCT scan to get a better idea, heart scans (because I was tachicardic and very short on oxygen), lots of blood tests and a sputum test (for infection/antibody detection) bronchoscopy (flexible scope in the lungs to get samples and biopsies) and when back on my feet lung function tests.

It is very scary, especially if your friend is otherwise well. ( I was very ill by the time I was admitted to UAU,so was relieved to be getting somewhere!).
The big C hangs over everything until you know but as a lifelong nonsmoker I was also comforted by the low odds - and that if it was that it is usually an easier type to treat than smokers face.

Thanks Magso- that's really useful.
It may well be viral etc or pollution living right bang in central London.
She has been very stressed for a long time as her mother is sick & in/out hospital and her marriage isn't great shakes either.
Fingers crossed.

They are waiting for a report that will come with X ray, X ray is back but not report (??) and GP has suggested that specialist may suggest CT or MRI scan or biopsy as neither of those is conclusive. anyone else?

She doesn't need a 'private referral'- in fact, tbh, when the Big C is mentioned, you're far better off going with the NHS flow. A mix of private and NHS can cause you to slip between the cracks, as it were. The NHS have this thing, the '2 week wait' which your friend would almost certainly qualify for (the GP makes that judgement) and once someone is in this, they should get a scan and report within 2 weeks. A CT is the way to go, possibly with a biopsy but they'd do the CT as a diagnostic test 1st, then plan a biopsy if need be. A MRI is useless for lungs.

GPs, despite attempts to the contrary, are in many cases gatekeepers. Specialist referral is entirely the correct thing to do. If it's a bit of infection, no harm done. If it IS cancer, she's in the system'.

Thanks ampere. It's all sorted now- she had a private CT scan at a major London hospital( has private health cover) more or less a day after seeing her GP rather than wait 2 weeks for NHS.

They said her lungs were normal and there seems to be no explanation for the cough so far or the shadow.