What is a lymph node in a lung?

Symptoms to expect? Untreated lung and lymph node cancer diagnosed?

• Husband diagnosed in Feb. '10 with SMALL cancerous lung spot. Perhaps surgery would work. Surgeon ran tests and found another cancerous spot on a lymph node. Husband refusing chemo/radia. What symptoms shall I expect?

• Answer:

  That was three months ago - and you are asking now ? Do you mean small cell lung carcinoma? Surgery does not work for that. Chemotherapy and radiation work well for small cell lung carcinomas. If it is non-small cell carcinoma, surgery is the best treatment in some cases. What "test" showed lymph node involvement other than a biopsy. This is a vague question with inadequate information. Since this is your husband, you must have been present when the oncologist explained the situation. The cancer specialist who knows the real facts in this case should be explaining this to you in detail. Explanations are part of the job. - - - As far as symptoms to expect - it depends where the malignancy spreads. Lung cancers spread to bones, adrenal glands, brain, liver, etc. I've seen hundreds of good people die of advanced lung carcinoma - each was different. You have posed an impossible question. The doctors who know your husband would be the best to make predictions regarding the future. But I caution you - doctors never know the future with any certainty.