I'm really worried and just looking for some clarity here. My mom, who's 67 and used to smoke but quit for years, had a bad case of COVID-19 with pneumonia early in 2021. After recovering, her CT scans showed a ground glass opacity, and later a Koch's lesion, but they said it was just post-COVID fibrosis and didn't need treatment. She's had a very mild dry cough that lasted for about a year and a half. Recently, in June 2022, we found out through an X-ray and CT scan that she has a 3cm lung mass in the apical segment of her right upper lobe. The scan also showed surrounding interlobular septal thickening, ground glass opacity, and bronchiectatic changes. The biopsy said it's small cell carcinoma, and it showed up as active on the PET scan. I'm really trying to understand if this cancer could have developed because of the post-COVID fibrosis since the mass is around the ground glass opacity, or if they're just unrelated. We're already starting treatment, but I'd really appreciate some insight on whether there's a connection or not.

Answered by 1 Apollo Doctors

Dr Anshul Maheshwari

General Practitioner

MBBS
5+ Yrs

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covid is not related to cancer

Dr. Anshul Suggests...

Consult a Oncologist

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Answered 04/07/2025

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I'm really worried about my 67-year-old mom, who used to smoke back in her teens but quit ages ago. She had a tough bout with Covid pneumonia in December 2020 and thankfully recovered. Still, a CT scan afterward showed some scattered ground glass opacities in her upper right lung, but they didn't give her any treatment then. She had this dry cough hanging around for over a year, but nothing serious came of it until we did another CT scan after a year and a couple of months. This scan showed a soft tissue mass around 3 cm in her upper right lung with surrounding interlobular septal thickening, ground glass opacities, and bronchiectatic changes. A PET scan said it's metabolically active, and a biopsy showed it's small cell carcinoma. They've started treatment now. I'm just trying to understand, could the post-Covid fibrosis and ground glass opacities have caused this small cell carcinoma? It's really concerning since the lung mass was found surrounded by those ground glass opacities. Any insights would really help me.

no covid doesn't cause small cell carcinoma

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