Stage Iv Nsclc With Metastases

My 58 year old father has recently been diagnosed with stage 4 nsclc with metastases to the lymph nodes and possibly the spine.

He would like to know how often others undergoing treatment receive a ct scan and also any advice on how to deal with discomfort.

Hi Emily,
My husband has stage 4 lung cancer that has spread to his lymph nodes and he has several chest masses outside the lung also. He gets CT scans every 4-6 months after trying different chemos to see if they have helped. He did some radiation which slightly shrunk his neck tumor which is 5-6 cm. He has a lot of swelling in his left arm and pain to his left neck area and upper chest (where to lung tumor is). He is now on oxtcontin timed release tablets 40mg 2x a day plus 5-10mg of oxycontin which he takes in between his large doses. His prognosis is not good. Our daughter is getting married May 14th and I am hoping he does well for the wedding. Right now he is starting terceva - an oral chemo drug along with avastin (thru his chemo port) weekly. Avastin has been approved by the FDA only for colon cancer -- but he is in a trial group to see if it will shrunk other tumors as well. I am sorry about your father - be positive
and look for treatment and make sure he is comfortable -- there is no reason for cancer patients to be in pain. God bless you and your family.

Nancy C.

How long has it been since your husband was diagnosed with Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer? My mother was just diagnosed this week. She may have been having symptoms for about 8 weeks. She has several tumors (15 - 20) on her brain and a 3cm mass on her lung. I am trying to get an idea of how fast it is spreading.

Ken,
Thanks for responding -- my husband was diagnosed with cancer -- primary unknown 18 months ago -- the primary site finally showed up 6 months ago in his left lung. He also has a large neck/chest tumor (6-7cm) --although the dr. always labeled him as lung cancer. As I said it was confirmed 6 months ago as it showed up on a CT scan but never showed up on any pet scans!! Why I don't know. The only symptom my husband had was a small growth on his neck -- that he was able to hide almost a year - then he showed it to me. I couldn't believe I never noticed it before.
I would assume your mother probably had the lung cancer long before her symptoms showed up - that's what's bad about this beast. I wish her well and God bless both of you. Any questions feel free to email me.
Nancy

Hi Emily,
My father is 59 years old and was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer a month and a half ago. My father started chemo within a week upon learning of his cancer. After 21 days he has just received his second round of chemo. In 2 weeks he will have another CT scan and in 3 weeks receive his 3rd treatment. I am still learning, I am not sure if things are going aggressively or slow. I hope everything goes well for you and your family. My prayers are with you.
Raquel

There's two other message boards that are much more active than this. You should re-post this message to those groups:

www.lchelp.com

www.acor.org (register for nsclc)

Hi, I happened to come across your reply to someone else and your situation sounds very close to mine. My mom was diagnosed last week with Stage 4 NSCLC. They believe that her cancer started in her left lung, migrated to the center, to the lymph nodes, to her spine and brain. She too has spots on her brain. She will start radiation for her back and brain this coming Monday. Other than her back pain and weight loss she is fine. This has taken our family on a rollercoaster and I need to find someone that has been through the same thing to give me some insite. The first prognosis was that she had less than a year. Can you give me any info that might be healpful. Everyone seems to beat around the bush, I need to know facts. You see I am 31 and my mom is 67 and my dad is 70. I am trying my best to find out as much for my dad but I keep hitting road blocks. I need to know how things went with other people in our same situation so that I can help my dad and mom through this very difficult time. Your response will be grately appriciated. Thanks - Tonya

My mother was diagnosed in Feb. She is doing great right now. The doctors gave my Mom 12 months. She had 24 brain tumors and a 7cm mass on the outside of her right lung. She had a week of Radiation on her brain and 4 months of chemo (2 months on 2 months off and then 2 months on again). She now has NO tumors on her brain and her lung mass has shrunk to 3cm. She does have one tumor on the base of her brain stem, but that is not bothering her. She is now off of the chemo and radiation. She is backing off of all steroids. She had some trouble walking during chemo but that seemed to come from the heavy dose of steroids. She gains some weight and some puffyness in the face. She had small blood clots in ther lets that she took care of herself, by injecting medicine in her stomach once a day. My mothers combo of chemo was very well taken by her body. If you want to know what those combo's were I can get you more information. We hope this remission last a very very long time. I wish you the very best and if I can help anymore please let me know.

Thanks for writing back, so happy for you and your mom. This gives me hope. Could you get me those combos.....it would be a possiblity that we could explore. Thanks! Tonya

your story gives me a lot of hope. My mother just underwent 9 months of chemo and 3 weeks of radiation. There are still afew spots near her lung, and we are waiting for an mri on her brain. what is the combo you are talking about?