Q&A about clinical trials for NSCLC w/ brain mets

[ccSar]

Hello! I work a nonprofit that helps cancer patients with tricky treatment questions. We’re amassing quite a collection of Q&As, and we recently decided we'd like to share them freely with anyone who might benefit, including via online forums. In that spirit, I want to share an exchange we had with an NSCLC patient (edited for anonymity), in case it could help anyone here:

 

Q: I was diagnosed with stage IIB adenocarcinoma of the lung in July 2013. I underwent lobectomy, followed by cisplatin/alimta and radiation therapy. In October 2014, a brain metastasis was found in my parietal lobe, and excised by craniotomy and then treated with SRS. In January 2015, my doctor found a cerebellar brain met, which we treated with SRS then surgical removal. In October 2015 this area had to be re-irradiated, and now in January 2016, my MRI showed that it is enlarged, and there is a new tumor in the frontal lobe. My neurosurgeon thinks that the old spot is “pseudo-progression,” but the new tumor is real. My radiation oncologist said no more radiation to the brain. There were no mutations found in any of my tumors; my oncologist thinks I should find a clinical trial. Any suggestions for relevant trials in Florida?

 

A: Brain metastases limit your eligibility for some trials, unfortunately, but several trials might be a good fit if your new brain lesion is asymptomatic. Below is a list of trials in FL, all of which either accept patients with asymptomatic mets, like you, or don’t mention brain metastases as one of the exclusion criteria:

[CindyA]

Hello,

This post was not approved by LUNGevity Foundation. Please contact us first for anything like this so that the content/survey/request can be vetted to ensure it is something safe that we can post on our message boards. This is to protect our members. If you have any questions please feel free to email me calmendarez@lungevity.org