The situation of respiratory system diseases or lung-related diseases in our country is becoming increasingly severe. Part of this is due to the environment and pollution, which are major causes of respiratory diseases, leading to anxiety when a health check-up and X-ray reveal a “lump in the lung.”
Most of the time, we tend to panic and think it might be lung cancer, even though in reality, a “lump in the lung” can be many things or might not be anything at all, meaning the body is perfectly fine. To clarify and increase understanding about lung lumps, Dr. Winai Boveja, a specialist in respiratory diseases, gave a very interesting interview on the topic of lung lumps as follows.
A lump in the lung is not always cancer. Don’t hurt your heart by assuming the worst.
Almost 100% of people tend to fear that a “lump” means cancer, but that is not true. We need to correct this thinking first because a lump is not always cancer. A lump is tissue. Tissue can be either malignant or benign. Malignant tissue is cancer, while benign tissue can be a lump, a polyp, hemorrhoids, or other non-cancerous things. Benign lumps can be caused by “infection,” such as tuberculosis, fungal infections, common bacteria, or parasitic stimulation. These are the infectious group.
For the non-infectious group, it involves inflammation of the body. The first type of inflammation is old scars, for example, patients who may have had a previous lung infection or an accident causing scars similar to those on our skin. Over time, scars can cluster into lumps, and when they contract, they appear as lumps on an X-ray. The second type of inflammation is actual inflammation, where the immune system attacks the body itself. When inflammation occurs, wounds form, which may also appear as lumps on an X-ray.
What you breathe in can also cause lumps in the lungs.
Besides infection and inflammation, there are other cases where an X-ray shows lumps in the lungs. The lump might be a polyp from foreign substances inhaled, such as people working in mines or factories with a lot of dust and stone particles. These foreign substances can accumulate and calcify in the body. Even PM 2.5, although small and unlikely to cause lumps in the short term, can potentially cause lumps if exposure is chronic and long-term. It is important to understand that abnormalities in the lungs do not occur from a single exposure but accumulate over time. People who live daily with vehicle smoke and pollution inhaled continuously have a chance of lung inflammation and lumps appearing on X-rays.
If an X-ray shows a lump in the lung, don’t Google it immediately, or you might get unnecessarily worried.
Have you ever seen something from afar that looks like a lump, but when you get closer, it’s something else? The same goes for lung X-rays. It is possible that there is nothing abnormal at all, even if a lump is seen on the X-ray. Sometimes, during a check-up, a lump is seen without any symptoms, but in reality, it might be nothing. It could be the shadow of a nipple, a rib, or a curved bone that appears as a foreign object in the lung on the X-ray.
Therefore, what the doctor wants to say is that an X-ray image is just a “picture” that broadly indicates the need to investigate the true cause. It is not a diagnosis of what we actually have. Most people get scared and jump to conclusions when an X-ray shows a lump in the lung. So, don’t panic and don’t Google it right away. Nowadays, when people get scared, the next step is to Google immediately, which can lead to unnecessary worry and exaggeration. But in the end, there might be nothing wrong at all. So, take it slowly. It’s better to have a health check-up because it helps find the true cause quickly. If there is something wrong, there is a better chance of successful treatment.
