Today, a patient was diagnosed with an 8mm nodule. He hesitated between surgery and no surgery. I asked him if he had any concerns about the surgery? He said that a person he knew found a 1.3cm lung nodule, and it metastasized three months after the operation. After chemotherapy, he passed away after half a year, so he was afraid that he would be like him, and it would be better not to have surgery.
Does what he says really exist? It is indeed possible that a relative of mine, similar to the patient he mentioned, also had early-stage lung cancer, 1.6cm. He developed pain in the scapula half a year after the operation. After a checkup, it was found that the scapula had metastasized. After one year of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he still died uncontrollably. This happened a few years ago. Later, after taking out his pathology report for careful study, it was found that his pathological type was poorly differentiated and had a high degree of malignancy, but there were no adherent, acinar, or papillary types at that time. As well as the classification of the micropapillary type, it is only known that the degree of malignancy is high, and the specific degree is unknown.
Speaking of this, many people start to worry. Can early-stage lung cancer be followed up with confidence? It is necessary to correctly recognize the rarity of the above-mentioned cases. When I introduce the knowledge of early lung cancer to many patients, except for carcinoma in situ, I never say that nodules can be cured 100%, even nodules below 1cm There is a chance of recurrence, but the possibility of recurrence is very small, and most people will not recur after surgery.
