Enlarged lymph nodes in lungs

[Xeno]

Hi all,

I'm a male(white), 29 years old and living in The Netherlands.

I got diagnosed last June with testicular cancer. After extended blood works and scans they concluded it was a stage 1 non-seminoma. My tumor markers were trough the roof. After surgery and removal from my cancerous testicle my markers were dropping quite fast. Been having perfect blood scores since then.

I've been on 'watch' since then. Had an appointment today to discuss my latest CT scan and blood works. This is after almost a year having nothing.

Apparently my markers are perfect as always, my abdomen is fine aswel. The only thing is that both my lymph nodes at my lungs are a bit 'bigger' than usual. He asked if I had the flu or anything that could explain why they are bigger rigth now. Unfortunately I have no idea.

Next Monday I'll be getting a phone call regarding what they will do. He told me it could go two ways; they want to make another thorax photo to see if it's shrinking or doing anything else or they are starting me on chemo just in case it did spread.

Only thing he can't put his finger on is that my markers are perfect (before surgery last year they were trough the roof) and that my abdomen is fine..

Anyone else had the same issue as me with enlarged lymph nodes? How did that work out for you?
Edit:
Next week I'm getting a PET scan and an esophagus research :-(. They want to make sure it's not metastatic.

[Violet0729]

Hi Xeno, and my husband was diagnosed with Seminoma stage 1A one year ago but now he’s stage 2b because of one lymph node in his ab. He might get biopsy or just get chemo. We are scared and nervous but this support group is amazing. Reading everyone’s stories and experiences really does help. Surveillance is great because you save the big guns if you should need them. We will pull through and be ok since testicular cancer is highly curable. Oh by the way, my husband’s tumor markers are always normal.

[Harxxony]

Hi Xeno, what did you mean by this?

The only thing is that both my lymph nodes at my lungs are a bit 'bigger' than usual.

There are probably hundred lymph nodes in the lungs area. Did you mean that two nodes are enlarged, or that nodes are enlarged in both lungs? How big they are, is there anything else about their shape or something? Nodes can normaly enlarge due many reasons, and if your markers are normal you can be sure that it isn't cancer reccurence.
Also, you surveillance program is nod good. They did not check you a whole year?

[Davepet]

Well, afraid it is entirely possible to have a recurrence without raised markers, even though they were high with the initial cancer. Markers are useful if elevated or dropping,but not as useful if normal. I'd want to know the actual size of the nodes & their location. It would be very odd for seminoma to show up on the lungs without showing up in the abdomen. Many guys here have had enlargedlung ndes that turned out to be nothing.

Dave

[Harxxony]

He wrote it was non-seminoma, not seminoma. And if markers of initial TC were elevated, they will be elevated in reccurence also. But, if it was mixed tumor, it's slight possibility that they were elevated due to one non-seminoma component, and reccurence is from another non-elevating component. Some additional info of primary TC will be usefull.

[Davepet]

Sorry, got him mixed up with Violet's husband.