The spot in your lung is usually a term your doctor uses to describe the presence of a white spot on your chest x-ray, so the stain can have several causes.
Although lung cancer is still a possibility, it is quite rare and usually spot is just a sign of infection or inflammation of lung tissue. And even when it is caused by the growth of something inside the lung, it is usually a benign, unrelated tumor.
- Often.
- The stain on the x-ray can also be called a lump in the lung.
- But in these cases.
- Your doctor may already be wary of tissue growth.
- Which can be benign or malignant.
- To confirm benignity or malignancy.
- A biopsy.
- The sample of which is taken for laboratory testing.
- May be required.
- Learn more about the lump in your lung.
Infections are the leading cause of spots in the lungs, even if there is no longer an active infection. Therefore, the white spot may appear on the x-ray after the person has had pneumonia or tuberculosis, for example, representing a place in the lung where tissues are still inflamed.
However, if there is no history of infection, your doctor should evaluate for symptoms and perform a mucus test to confirm if bacteria are developing in your lungs. Find out how TB is identified.
Benign tumor consists of the growth of tissue within the lung, which usually causes no symptoms and is therefore only discovered during routine examinations. One of the most common types is fibroid, in which very fiber-rich tissues develop on respiratory visas.
When the growth of this type of tumor is greatly exaggerated, it can cause changes in breathing, but it usually does not cause symptoms and therefore treatment may not be necessary.
It is important for your doctor to analyze the person’s context, signs and symptoms, and if there has been exposure to chemicals, imaging tests and, in some cases, a biopsy may be needed to assess the benignity of the tumor.
Another possible cause of a small spot in the lung is the presence of a group of blood vessels in an area of the lung, called hemangioma. These vessels usually develop at birth, but because they usually don’t cause symptoms, they are only identified during routine exams. Learn more about what hemangioma is and how it’s treated.
Hemangioma is usually kept only under surveillance to assess whether it increases in size. If the size does not change, your doctor usually doesn’t indicate any treatment, however, if your airways develop and press, surgery may be needed to remove excess vessels, for example.
Although rarer, lung cancer can also be a cause of spots in the lungs. Usually, in such cases, there may already be other signs such as persistent coughing, shortness of breath, blood in phlegm or chest pain, for example.
Spots can also be the result of cancer that originated in other organs and spread to the lungs, called metastasis.
Lung cancer is more common in people who smoke, so if this is the case, your doctor may order more tests, such as a CT scan, to try to misconfid or diagnose your cancer diagnosis.
See what other signs can help identify lung cancer
After you identify a lung spot on the x-ray, your doctor evaluates the person’s history to try to determine the risk of being a more serious problem, such as cancer. In addition, other tests such as a CT scan or even a biopsy may be done to try to better evaluate the type of tissue that causes the stain, as well as blood tests to evaluate tumor markers, allowing you to decide the best form of treatment. .
With CT scans, your doctor should be able to further evaluate the size and shape of the stain, which may already better indicate your risk of cancer. In general, very large, very irregularly shaped plaques are more likely to be cancerous, but only a biopsy can confirm the diagnosis.