how long can you have cancer without knowing?

I had no sypmtoms except for some eventual swellilng in my neck..by the time i was diagnosed i had advanced stage 4b lung cancer with lymph node involvement. My doc said i probably had it for many months if not longer before they found it. I was lucky with my treatment of cisplatin and VP16. i am currently in remission but there is a high probability of it showing up elsewhere in my body. God luck and God bless..there is always hope

It can be a long time as lung cancers usually don't show big symptoms until its very advanced. Some types of cancer are more aggressive than other also so that can also make a difference. The cancer I got was a slow growing carcinoid cancer and it was 7.7cm before it was found and even then it was found by accident during a CT scan for another problem. The carcinoid cancer I have grows less than 1cm a year so that means I had it at least 7 years before it was found.

Dave