A real case of "fighting" lung nodules
I have been in the outpatient clinic for many years, witnessed countless patients, experienced the impermanence of life, and felt the tenacity of life, and today I want to share with you a real case of despair and miracles coexisting.
The patient comes from an ordinary family in Guangdong, a family of three live a harmonious and happy life, but the disease is so cold and merciless, and the disaster is not alone, first of all, the elderly father was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, the old man's health has been good before he joined the army, but even such physical fitness has not been able to resist the "entanglement" of the disease, tried many targeted treatments, and finally failed.
At a time when the family was full of despair, the daughter was found to have a ground glass nodule of about 10 mm.
I still remember the helpless look she had when she was in my clinic that day, and she said, "Director Joe, am I also lung cancer?" In April this year, my father's physical examination found lung cancer, and after my father took targeted drugs, there was no effect, would I do the same? Do I want to have surgery right away? ”
I looked into her confused eyes and said, "If you first find a lung nodule, you should follow up for three months to eliminate inflammation, and the next time you review the thin-layer CT and then accurately diagnose it." If the follow-up does not disappear, it can be cured by surgery. ”
In the end, fortunately, the patient's nodule was successfully removed, and her body gradually recovered, and when I went to see her in the ward, her expression was almost the same as when she was in the outpatient clinic before, and the person became cheerful.
This is a happy ending, from this case can be seen that the lung nodule is not as terrible as we think, the lung nodule refers to the normal lungs inside the growth of an abnormal thing, popularly speaking is the growth of a pimple.
Are lung nodules really that scary? Don't panic! This article makes it clear to you
It is the concept of pulmonary nodules as imaging, not pathological diagnosis, nor the concept of accurate diagnosis, referring to ct, X-ray examination reports on the lung tissues within 3 cm of the increase in density of nodular lesions.
In fact, many people will have lung nodules, and the authoritative department of our country has done a statistic that there are more than 1.4 billion people in China, and more than 100 million people have lung nodules.
What causes a lung nodule? How many types of lung nodules can be divided? Here's how
So why do our lungs grow a thing at the good end? There are only two causes: inflammation (bacterial infections, infectious granulomas, inflammatory diseases), and tumor lesions (primary lung cancer, lung metastases).
According to the density of pulmonary nodules, it can be divided into three categories:
1. Solid nodules: all the nodules in the nodules are soft tissue density, the density is relatively uniform, and the patient's vascular and bronchial images are covered.
2. Partial solid nodules: The nodules contain both ground glass density and solid soft tissue density, and the density is uneven.
3. Ground glass density nodules: refers to the blurred shadow of nodules in the lungs, and the density of nodules is slightly increased compared with the surrounding lung parenchyma, but the contours of blood vessels and bronchial tubes are still visible.
Depending on the number of pulmonary nodules, it can be divided into two categories:
1. Isolated lung nodules: many isolated lung nodules have no obvious symptoms, and are manifested as soft tissue shadows with clear boundaries, increased density, a diameter of ≤ 3 cm, and surrounded by air-containing lung tissue.
2. Multiple lung nodules: 2 or more are defined as multiple, and multiple lung nodules are often manifested as single lung nodules with one or more small nodules. It is generally believed that > 10 diffuse lung nodules are mostly caused by malignant metastatic tumors or benign lesions (inflammatory diseases caused by infectious or non-infectious factors).
From the above we know that not all lung nodules are serious, so not all lung nodules need to be treated, and the key to judging whether a lung nodule is to be treated is to judge the nature of the nodule.
Treatment of pulmonary nodules should also be divided into three situations, do not "one size fits all"
1. If it is benign and stale (scar left by previous infection with pneumonia), no treatment is required.
2. If it is inflammation, anti-inflammatory treatment is required. Nodules are acute inflammatory infections, which require treatment with antibiotics and antiviral drugs to control nodules and control inflammatory infections.
3. If it is a tumor, targeted treatment is required. Surgery may be taken, anti-tumor drugs may be taken, and even radiation therapy and other multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment methods may be taken, according to the nature of the nodule and the different staged states of the nodule.
How do we know if our lung nodules are malignant and need to be removed?
Teach you to judge the "good and evil" of the lung knot from three points
1, look at the image imaging: if it looks irregular, strange, ugly, it may not be good; smooth, neat most of it is benign.
2, look at the size: if the size of the lung nodule is less than 5 mm, then the risk of cancer is very low, the larger the possibility, the higher the probability.
3, look at the family history: if there is a family history, especially if the direct blood relatives have had tumors and lung cancer, then this lung nodule should be highly valued.