Is it possible for my lung cancer to reach the tailbone?

Question

Hello doctor,

I am a 30-year-old man. I was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. This has been really shocking to me and my family, since I am relatively young and I was in good health.

For several weeks now, I have experienced a dull ache in the area around my tailbone whenever I stay seated for too long. In addition, I noticed that the pain intensifies at night. All this has put me on edge, and I fear that the cancer may have already reached my bones.

Is there a possibility for lung cancer to reach the tailbone in a 30-year-old patient?
Which kinds of imaging procedures should be done to find out if it has happened?
If bone metastases have occurred, which treatment methods are possible in such a case?

Please help.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I have read your query, and I can understand your concern.

I am well aware of your worries with regard to the diagnosis, and I would like to let you know that it is perfectly normal to feel that way.

Following the diagnosis of lung cancer, the first thing that needs to be done is the staging of the disease. Staging is a process by which it is possible to find out how much the cancer cells have spread so as to plan an appropriate treatment.

Lung cancer spreads to various body organs, including the brain. However, there is one positive aspect of your condition: you are just 30 years old, which means your general health is good enough to make you more resistant to therapy, especially to chemotherapy.

The good news is that lung cancer is quite treatable. Once the treatment starts, irrespective of whether it is chemotherapy or another type of treatment, tumors will be greatly reduced. Sometimes they get completely eliminated so that, eventually, there is no evidence of disease (NED) at all.

In any case, I highly recommend starting the treatment suggested to you by the oncologists based on the stage and your tests.

In case the cancer metastasizes to the brain, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) may be used. This approach allows for highly accurate treatment of the affected site without damaging the adjacent healthy tissues of the brain. The patients usually manage to get good control of their brain metastasis due to the treatment.

First of all, I would like to assure you that today lung cancer is not treated as it used to be treated some time ago. Currently, we have a great number of treatment options, such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and others. As a result, the treatment brings great improvements to the patient, and they achieve good control of their disease.

I hope you are satisfied with my answer. For further queries, you can consult me at iCliniq.

Thank you.