Mr. Phong, 53 years old, had chest pain for more than a year, was hospitalized for pleural effusion, and discovered that his lungs had many dense nodules due to metastatic cancer.
Mr. Phong has pain in his left chest below the shoulder blade. The pain increases when lying on your back and moving. The pain symptoms gradually increased. He went to a musculoskeletal examination and discovered arthritis in many locations. He took medication but the chest pain did not go away. Then, he was diagnosed with pleural pneumonia, and three rounds of antibiotic treatment did not improve.
At Tam Anh General Hospital in Hanoi, Mr. Phong was prescribed a low-dose CT lung scan, the results showed abnormal thickening of the pleura. The doctor consulted and decided to perform thoracoscopic surgery to biopsy the pleural lesion and make a diagnosis. Endoscopic images showed that Mr. Phong’s pleural cavity had pink fluid. The left pleural surface has many nodules forming rough patches like interwoven yellow-white coral reefs. The pathological result of the biopsy of the pleural lesion was lung cancer with pleural metastasis.
Doctors at Tam Anh General Hospital, Hanoi, consult with multispecialists to develop a treatment plan for the patient. Image: Tam Anh General Hospital
On June 14, Associate Professor, Dr. Chu Thi Hanh, Head of the Respiratory Department, Tam Anh General Hospital, Hanoi, said that lung cancer usually causes symptoms such as cough, shortness of breath, hoarseness, and hemoptysis. , damage to the lung parenchyma… But Mr. Phong did not have these symptoms. Lung computed tomography showed pleural nodules and faint pleural thickening, which were easily overlooked, causing chest pain that lasted more than a year without being able to diagnose the cause even though Mr. Phong went to many doctors.
After receiving the diagnosis, he was treated with a combination of methods according to his condition and palliative care at the Oncology department. His health is currently stable.
Pleural signs appear as malignant plaques on low-dose CT scans. Image: Tam Anh General Hospital
Lung cancer is very common, mostly caused by smoking. Mr. Phong used to be addicted to cigarettes and quit for nearly 5 years. Associate Professor Hanh explained that the body changes positively when quitting smoking, but the risk of lung cancer does not decrease. People who have smoked for a long time should be screened for lung cancer periodically.
People at high risk of lung cancer should have health screening including people with frequent exposure to carcinogens, radiation exposure, history of cancer, family history of lung cancer, history of lung diseases such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), pulmonary fibrosis, hormone replacement therapy.
Associate Professor Hanh said that low-dose lung CT scan is a lung cancer screening method recommended by many medical experts because its diagnostic effectiveness is equivalent to conventional CT scan. The amount of X-rays exposed to the patient’s body is lower and the cost is lower.