I met a new patient in clinic this week who has a solitary pulmonary nodule that has been followed with serial CT scans for a year, contains calcification, is FDG-PET-negative, and was biopsied with no evidence of malignant cells. It grew from 14mm to 17mm on the latest CT, and he came self-referred
One of my favorite patients is in terminal liver failure in the ICU. The sad thing is that she is dying slowly on a ventilator instead of peacefully at home. And that is partly my fault.
90% of cancer patients suffer from uncontrolled pain at some point in their disease – it’s what they fear most. Relief from pain will earn you more gratitude than treating the cancer.
