Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'whole brain radiation'.
Found 3 results
-
Hello, my name is Christine. My, 71 yr old, Mother was diagnosed in Nov 2016 w/ Stage IV metastatic adenocarcinoma NSCLC (primary: right lung, spread to both adrenal glands, brain & right proximal tibia). At diagnosis she was given an estimate of 6-12 months to live, which was quickly adjusted to 6 months after they discovered 13 brain mets opposed to the 3 they originally saw. She had surgery to remove the tumor in her right tibia, which they filled with bone cement to stabilize the bone. She has completed whole brain radiation, radiation to the right tibia & 2 rounds of chemo: Paraplatin (Carboplatin), Alimta (Pemetrexed) & Avastin (Bevacizumab). The chemo was unsuccessful. The cancer spread to multiple bones in her left leg, her pelvis & spine. They stopped chemo & started Opdivo last week. It is too soon after completing whole brain radiation to do another brain scan to know if it helped. I'm sorry for the information overload....I'm just trying to give as much info as possible to see if anyone here has a similar situation & could offer some words of wisdom, offer a glimpse of hope or suggest ways I can help her. Thank you in advance for your help.
-
First, let me say that I am beyond thankful and grateful for forums like this and people like you are willing to share your stories and provide feedback on your experiences! So, thank you for your openness. My father quit a 30-year-smoking streak about a year ago. Beyond this tragic bad habit, he is an otherwise incredibly healthy 60-year-old who has never been admitted to a hospital or had a surgery. In December and January, he began to experience some peripheral vision loss in his left eye and cognitive impairments that left him temporarily confused about where he was or what he was doing on multiple occasions. After a few scans, a major brain surgery, and a pathology report, we have come to learn that he has stage IV, small cell, metastatic, high grade Neuroendocrine Carcinoma. While clearly this is a lung cancer diagnosis, he had 0 symptoms that would be associated with detection of lung problems. He only had one very large tumor in the brain, which was mostly cystic, and they were able to remove about 98% of the tumor. There is also a large mass in his lung, with metastasis to some surrounding lymph nodes(LN). We have just finished the first round of appointments to set up treatment with the radiation oncologist, medical oncologist, neurosurgeon, and the various other players involved in his treatment and care. The entire medical team is at Emory in Atlanta and we feel very fortunate to have some of the best medical professionals in the country working on his case. He is set to go through 10 treatments of whole brain radiation starting next week (2/29), then following with 4-6 rounds of chemo to address the tumor in his lung and LN. The question I would like to pose is this: What are your experiences with the side effects of whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT)? My dad is a business analyst. He is very good at what he does and is highly respected by those in his field. He really enjoys working and it is a motivator for him to fight through this yucky diagnosis, but the cognitive deficits, like short term memory loss, that have been posed as potential side effects of the WBRT have him trying to push for SRS. He is super concerned with what life on the other side of WBRT looks like for him, which is totally understandable. My siblings and I (along with his doctors) feel like small cell cancer is too aggressive to mildly treat with SRS….but our dad is a ‘numbers’ guys and he is looking for quantitative data on the cognitive deficits experienced by those with a similar diagnosis who have had WBRT. We have done tons of research, but most studies are based on non-small cell and/or the combination of SRS and WBRT. In addition, his doctors have told him that it would be difficult to quantify his cognitive outcome as he is, on-average, younger and healthier than most who undergo this treatment for this diagnosis. If anyone out there can speak to the effects they have experienced from this treatment or can provide any insight to their experience with any type of brain radiation, my family and I would be very grateful for your input!!! And if there is anything that you think we could provide to any of you with a similar situation please don’t hesitate to reach out!- 6 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- neuroendocrine carcinoma
- small cell
- (and 1 more)
-
I posted this in the meet-and-greet forum and I apologize for the redundancy, but I wanted to follow up with those more closely related to our situation... First, let me say that I am beyond thankful and grateful for forums like this and people like you are willing to share your stories and provide feedback on your experiences! So, thank you for your openness. My father quit a 30-year-smoking streak about a year ago. Beyond this tragic bad habit, he is an otherwise incredibly healthy 60-year-old who has never been admitted to a hospital or had a surgery. In December and January, he began to experience some peripheral vision loss in his left eye and cognitive impairments that left him temporarily confused about where he was or what he was doing on multiple occasions. After a few scans, a major brain surgery, and a pathology report, we have come to learn that he has stage IV, small cell, metastatic, high grade Neuroendocrine Carcinoma. While clearly this is a lung cancer diagnosis, he had 0 symptoms that would be associated with detection of lung problems. He only had one very large tumor in the brain, which was mostly cystic, and they were able to remove about 98% of the tumor. There is also a large mass in his lung, with metastasis to some surrounding lymph nodes(LN). We have just finished the first round of appointments to set up treatment with the radiation oncologist, medical oncologist, neurosurgeon, and the various other players involved in his treatment and care. The entire medical team is at Emory in Atlanta and we feel very fortunate to have some of the best medical professionals in the country working on his case. He is set to go through 10 treatments of whole brain radiation starting next week (2/29), then following with 4-6 rounds of chemo to address the tumor in his lung and LN. The question I would like to pose is this: What are your experiences with the side effects of whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT)? My dad is a business analyst. He is very good at what he does and is highly respected by those in his field. He really enjoys working and it is a motivator for him to fight through this yucky diagnosis, but the cognitive deficits, like short term memory loss, that have been posed as potential side effects of the WBRT have him trying to push for SRS. He is super concerned with what life on the other side of WBRT looks like for him, which is totally understandable. My siblings and I (along with his doctors) feel like small cell cancer is too aggressive to mildly treat with SRS….but our dad is a ‘numbers’ guys and he is looking for quantitative data on the cognitive deficits experienced by those with a similar diagnosis who have had WBRT. We have done tons of research, but most studies are based on non-small cell and/or the combination of SRS and WBRT. In addition, his doctors have told him that it would be difficult to quantify his cognitive outcome as he is, on-average, younger and healthier than most who undergo this treatment for this diagnosis. If anyone out there can speak to the effects they have experienced from this treatment or can provide any insight to their experience with any type of brain radiation, my family and I would be very grateful for your input!!! And if there is anything that you think we could provide to any of you with a similar situation please don’t hesitate to reach out!
