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Lung Tumor Harvest for TIL
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Lung Tumor Harvest for TIL

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Lung Tumor Harvest for TIL

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    • June 16, 2017 at 5:06 pm
    Cindyco
    Participant

      Has anyone had a lung tumor harvested or biopsied and can share their experience?  They will be removing 1cm and we are wonering how invasive it will be and what the recovery time will be like.  

       

       

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        • June 16, 2017 at 5:35 pm
        MikeW
        Participant

          Cindy…first, sorry you are going through this…but, it seems like your Mel team is looking for some novel solutions for you. 

          I've had two lung biopsies in the last 6 months. The first was to validate the diagnosis and understand any mutations. The second one was prior to beginning treatment in an attempt to understand if I was PDL1 pos or neg. 

          For the above, they took a much, much smaller sample than 1 CM so my situation may be much different. I went to the interventional radiation department, took the contrast an hour in advance of the procedure and was then wheeled into the room. For me, I needed to be 'active' for the biopsy…meaning awake enough to take deep breaths and hold them as they inserted the needed into my back to access my lung. This process happened 5-6 times until they had access to the tumor. Once they had access, they 'clipped' a few samples. They have me a sedative as well as something for the pain. Both were over in less than 30 minutes.  Recovery was about 3 days or so. 

            • June 16, 2017 at 6:32 pm
            Julie in SoCal
            Participant

              Hi Cindy,

              My experience was similar to Mike's.  Went into the CT room, and they gave me some happy juice to relax me, but not put my under. I was very awake through the whole thing, but not freaked out.

              You feel the local anesthetic going in (small sting) and you feel a bit of pushing and then a short sharp pain (5/10) but then the pain is addressed ( think they use more anesthetic) and that's it.  Didn't feel any more pain.  You have to hold your breath a few times when they're getting the sample and I think when they do the CT scan (but I could be wrong about that).  It's pretty easy.

              It didn't take me long to recover.  I coughed a bit of blood and a bit more the next day, but I didn't have any problems.

              To be honest, I was freaked out about this and did not want it.  I'm not really sure what I was afraid of, but I wanted nothing to do with it.  Now I look back at this (and the VATs surgery) that laugh at myself.  It was really easy!!!  Possibly the hardest part is laying on your stomach on the CT table with your arms raised.  Yes, it really was that easy.

              Trust all will go easy for you, too.

              Shalom,

              Julie

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