Multiple Brain Lesions (22)

Do you know anyone who has been diagnosed with lung cancer matastasized to the brain with 15 plus lesions that has survived?  If so what treatment did the person recieve?  What was the persons mental condition after treatment?

If you know someone who did not survive, I need to know what to expect?

A little background, my husband was an expert witness for  thecourt systems.  In Feb. he had a slight seizure, I rushed him to the hospital and the brain lesions were found.  He immediately began radiation and by mid March was totally confused.  He knows people but does not know the day of the week.  I tell him when to bathe, when to change his clothes, and when to drink a carnation instant breakfast.  Prior to mid March he could not eat enough now he will not eat anything except the instant breakfast.

He is currently taking Tarceva with few side effects.  I am wondering if I should try one of the clinical trials but I know he would not want to live if his life is like it is now.  I need to know if he will regain any of his mental capacity if he continues with treatment or obtains new treatment.

When you say "lesions", do you mean metastases? My brother had a whole bunch of little ones, too many for Gamma Knife-type procedures, so he had 10 days of whole-brain. He was death walking, or rather shuffling, for a week, then he got better, and then he started losing feeling in his left hand and the left side of his face. After three days his daughter noticed and forced him to the emergency room. They did a CT scan and said he was having some seizure activity, probably due to the dosage of steroids that went with the radiation being too low, or decreased too fast or too soon. He didn't recognize his symptoms as seizures. Right now he's in the hospital for observation and treatment of the neurological issues. They still say he should recover from the radiation in 4-6 weeks.

He seems kind of afraid to leave the hospital, but that may be because he has no experience with neurological cooties. He looks way better than he did during the chemo, but he thinks he's sicker. Gamma rays sound scary.

My brother is in the process of retiring from his teaching job, which I think is part of the problem. When you have a profession that requires cognitive functionality, especially if you're a man, you feel like you've become a waste of space. Me, I retired on disability first from the Army and then from word processing pools in investment banks; I took up spinning and knitting and Barbies and haven't been this content since... ever. I don't know what to advise my brother to do as we live in the city and he can't garden or anything like that.

Does Tarceva affect the appetite or cause nausea? Do the doctors say the radiation arrested the progress of the disease? Maybe he just needs to recover from the radiation sickness -- after all, it's the same as what you see in the science fiction movies. And for sure he'll have to accept some loss of mental facility, but maybe there's an interest he can pursue that will occupy him.

I wish you the best; this stuff is a bear, ain't it?

--jayne

I suggest you pose your lung cancer question to Dr. West at www.onctalk.com .  There is a lot of profession experience at that site.

My wife had 5 metastasis removed last April 07.  One by resection and the other by Gamma Knife and is still doing pretty well.  She had 20 sessions of WBR and experienced all the bad responses from brain radiation: hair loss, appetite loss, extreme fatigue, nausea, etc.  Most of that has gone away to an acceptable level of tolerance but the cognitive skills are at about 90% and the energy level about 60%.  Only now is she feeling poorly again and is returning for more tests.  When a disease has metastasized, especially multiply and with multiple locations, the prognosis is of greater concern.

 Hers has not been diagnosed as lung cancer but is called a cancer of unknown primary.  Statistics show, however, it will probably one day be determined to be from the lung.  Her disease is probably not curable but is treated pallatively for the best quality of life possible for the remaining time.