FWIW, I've heard doctors use different language at early stages of diagnosis. I think Cohen is being cautious because he won't know anything for sure until he gets the biopsy results. It's hard to tell what's going on from scans alone. In my wife's case, various scans led her doctors to believe she had diverticulosis. It certainly looked that way based on initial imaging. She only got her upgrade to a colon cancer diagnosis when her docs got their mitts on a tissue sample.
On a related note, we were talking about RoFo last night, and she remarked that at his size, surgeons probably won't be able to use laproscopic techniques. He may need a large, old-school incision, which takes much longer to heal up. She also raised some good points about his overall health (asthma, possible prescription/recreational drug use, blood pressure), which could make a surgery more complex, assuming one is called for. Neither of us are doctors, of course.