Welcome to the forum AlW although I'm sorry to read about your family member's lung cancer diagnosis.

As we're a support forum we're not able to offer any medical advice so if this is what you're seeking the best thing to do would be to get in touch with your family member's medical team - with their permission - so you can have the chance to ask any questions that are playing on your mind about their diagnosis or treatment.

I'm not sure how much you know about lung cancer already so I'm including some information we have on our website for you to have a look at in case you'd like to find out more. There are many members on the forum - [@Wepatsyxx]‍, [@littleone58]‍ and [@Shelly1]‍ to name a few - that have had experience of dealing with a lung cancer diagnosis and now that I've mentioned them in this post they'll hopefully be along soon to offer their support and advice.

If the radiotherapy goes ahead I hope it is successful in reducing the size of the tumour.

Kind regards, 

Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hello and welcome to the forum but sorry that you find yourself here.  I lost my husband to lung cancer in 2016. I am assuming from what you have written that your family member is awaiting biopsy results to determine the type and stage of this lung cancer.

My husband had a chest x ray which showed a shadow on his right lung and we were told then that it was very likely to be lung cancer. Following a ct scan and bronchoscopy it was indeed confirmed that he had NSCLC with invasion to chest wall and heart valves and possible spread to adrenal glands. Because of where the tumour was situated and other health problems that my husband had, we were told that it was incurable and given a prognosis of 9-12 months. He was however given 4 doses of palliative radiotherapy to try and keep the tumour at bay and give him a reasonable quality of life for his last few months which amounted to six.

As in most types of cancer each case seems to be very different, with differing symptoms. At the outset with my husband the only symptoms he had were shortness of breath and extreme tiredness and fatigue.

I am not sure if I have been any help to you but I will try and give support and advice where I can. 

I hope that you get a definite diagnosis soon and then you know what you are dealing with. In the meantime I hope that your family member's pain can be kept in control.

Sending caring thoughts to your and your relative and please keep posting.

Lynne.x