Suggest Treatment For Cough, Plugged Ears And Drainage From The Sinuses While Lying Down

Brief Answer:
Low chance of cancer, but must be followed up with CT

Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome,

I can understand why you would feel distressed. The good news is that if his cough is related to the tickle down his throat and his ears are plugged, that is coming from drainage from the sinuses rather than the lungs.

But he definitely does need a CT to follow up, and he definitely needs to quit smoking ASAP. If he needs help with quitting, there are medications to help with the urge to smoke and down feeling from not smoking - such as bupropion.

Soft tissue detail can be difficult to tell on X-ray, so what we know is that there is something seen on the X-ray but don't know what it is yet. If it measures 3 cm, it is considered a mass. The ones you described would be nodules. There is more chance of cancer if they are 3 cm or more (which they are not).

Some of the causes of nodules are past lung infections, scar tissue, malformed blood vessels, hamartomas (which is the most common benign lung nodule), deposit of amyloid, benign growth of connective tissue, atelectasis (air spaces that are collapsed from not fully filling the lungs), and cancers - which is why this does need to be sorted out. Only about 4% of lung nodules turn out to be cancerous. The smaller they are, the better, because of earlier detection. So schedule that CT scan if he hasn't already.

Since the lesions are small (not masses) and one is even less than 1 cm (7 mm) and there are many reasons for them, try to do whatever you can to keep your mind off of this until the CT is done and the results come back. In the meantime, support your husband in efforts to quit smoking as that will help his immune system no matter what the CT results.

I hope this gives you some reassurance and also steps for what to do next (schedule the CT, talk with your husband about support groups and possibly meds to help him quit smoking).

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Brief Answer:
Yes -

Detailed Answer:
Yes, a mass is almost always visible on chest x-ray.

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Brief Answer:
Information

Detailed Answer:
A chest xray is 2 dimensional, like a photo, and so things that are in front can cover things that are behind it. So if a nodule is partially obscured, likely there are naturally occurring structures in front of it, such as larger blood vessels or airways. A CT takes pictures in layers, so viewing the nodule usually won't be hindered by what is in front of it.

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Brief Answer:
Thoughts on this

Detailed Answer:
I'd have to read how the radiologist wrote the statement, but if he/she was able to write the size, they probably were able to see it's borders. Perhaps the structure in front of it was obscuring the middle of it. Or, with a round appearing structure, you can estimate the size of the part that is covered by seeing the other part.

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Brief Answer:
Information

Detailed Answer:
Ok, thanks. It looks like the radiologist was able to see the size of the 11 mm nodule as he/she didn't indicate that there may be more beyond it.

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