A friend of mine who recently quit smoking after many, many years just had a CAT scan....they found a 12mm nodule in her lung and she is absolutely terrified, even though dr told her this is small. She has to wait for another week to have a biopsy....

Can you share any experiences/give me any info on this? Is this actually small? What else could it be besides cancer?

I would love to help ease her mind, so please give any info if you can....

Thanks!

It could be scar tissue, it could be calcifications, it could be benign growths. Doctor's won't really know right off the bat and may have to biopsy it or possibly do a PET scan or a multi-slice CT scan to see what it might be. Since it is so small they may just monitor it with follow up CT scans to make sure it does not grow in size or change shape. Since she has a history of smoking that is not a good factor, but it could be a nodule left over as a scar from chicken pox, bronchitis, pneumonia. If she is asthmatic it could be scarring from taking inhalers.

To make her feel better...I just had a lung x-ray and had some nodules appear in he lungs as well. They were 3mm in size but I never smoked and am asthmatic. The doctor doesn't think it is anything but I have to monitor it as well. Everything is done as a precaution and if it is anything then it is very very early stages given the size of her nodule.

I hope this helped some. Please let me know how everything turns out. I wish her and you the best of luck. You're a good friend!