CT scan questions for lung mets

[Jean]

I just had my CT scan result, and like to know if anybody with lung mets can help explain the result. After 4 months Novelbine/herceptin chemo, CT scan of 5/20/04 showed less fluid compare to scan of 3/1/04. The 1cm node on the right lung( it was 1 cm in 5/1/03) and the 0.5cm node on the left lung(it was found 0.5cm in 12/30/03)are unchanged. All other small nodes in the lung diminished. The mediastinal nodes desappeared. How to explain those 2 nodes which were stay the same for such a long time? Does this mean the novelbine/herceptin could not knock them down? or may be they are dead tisue there? Any thoughts would be appreciatted. Thanks in advance for all your input!

[Patty H]

I have the same thing, one lung met just seems to refuse to shrink. I know there are others on this site who will have one or two that just seems to be stubborn. My Dr. now uses the one that seems to stay there as a marker as to whether to try other chemos. After the first shrinkage I had we continued on that chemo until the next scan and when there was still no results on that one, we tried others. Patty H

[Brian]

Just a suggestion for you ladies, my wife had lung mets and after her initial round of chemo had reduced the tumors in size, they suggested using the cyberknife to finish them off or tumor ablation in the lung. This might be a consideration for you.

[Jean]

Thanks for your suggestion. Did your wife have the cyberknife, or tumor ablation? How was it? I never heard about it. It is a big operation or how that was done?, It is dangerous? Please help me understand. Thanks a lot!