My dad went to ahve two dark spots found on a routine chest xray seen by a radio!
Question: they didnt say anything? What does no news mean?
Answers: they didnt say anything? What does no news mean?
OK, ya getting some bad answers:
1st a Radiologist is a doctor, it is the radiologist who initially reads and interpretes x-rays in a hospital setting. Most MD's only interprete simple findings and have x-rays sent out for an "over read" by the Radiologist.
2nd you are getting correct advise, most Lung CA is not initially seen on x-ray, but once it goes get large enoug it does present as a "cloudy" or "dark" localized spot on lung. There are different types of development of CA, if it is advanced it will look like white puffy spots and the lung collapses (ie air caught in area) or fluid fill the diseased area.
After additional x-rays, and other diagnosic imaging the next step will be a biopsy to formally diagnose and stage the tumor to see if it is begnin or malignant.
It probably doesn't mean anything. The radiologist usually can't tell a patient what the x-rays say. The doctor is the one who does that. So, by not saying anything, the radiologist was just following procedure. Dark spots don't always mean anything. My father-in-law had dark spots on his lungs, but in the end, it was nothing.
Thats just crazy. Dark spots on an XR indicate a clear spot. Its those big fluffy white spots you worry about or hazey looking areas that look like big puffs of clouds or cotton balls.
They didnt say anything because there aint anything.
If your dad smokes and thats why he is worried, he needs to quit now.
Good for your dad quitting smoking. Thats great! He has way reduced his chance of getting cancer.
Lung cancer is not usually found on a chest XR. They do see some big globs of white nodularity in the chest on an XR, they will go further and do a cat scan of the chest with dye which will show a tumor. Sometimes they even go for the MRI so they can better see a picture of a tumor if they suspicion a tumor is present in the chest.