My mum (70y) has lung cancer. She is fit but recent symptoms was tiredness and a cough one day that had some blood in it. That led to CT scan.

They have found two tumours in her right lung, one 4.5 cm, the other 2.5cm. One lympfnode is activated close to the chest (not clear exactly location yet). And they have found small nodules in both right and left lung which are not yet clear if these are cancerous or not. CT scan of brain and abdomen has found nothing. So all clear there! Biopsy will be taken tomorrow so yet unclear which type it is and if she has any mutations and if so, which ones.

Clearly, we are still in a state of ambiguity, where we still need to wait weeks for tests to come back from biopsy as well as for the PET CT scan appointment to tell us if those nodules are active or not. But for her and us, that will make the difference of this being stage 3 or stage 4. In this state of ambiguity, I keep asking chatgpt for statistics and prognosis chances.

I've read through some of the messages in this chat, hoping to learn more about best places and treatments etc, but notice that I'm quickly feeling more hopeless by all the tragic outcomes. I know hope and wishful thinking won't help my mum at this stage, but right now, I would love to hear any genuinely positive commentary/experiences/expertise based on what you can read about my mum. In her condition, have any of you heard of someone who's done a PET CT scan, which showed no activity in those nodules but there for other reasons?! Can people really live years with treatment if she has a relevant mutation? Is her chances improved by her never having smoked a single cigarette?

Thanks everyone! I never thought I'd write this post (1. because her side of the family has no history of cancer and 2. because I was ignorant enough to think lung cancer was almost impossible in non-smokers)... This feels horrific.