MIL w/ GBM had stroke

My MIL was diagnosed 09/08 with GBM.  She has headaches all along but they got worse over the past 6 weeks and she started having some visual problems.  They did two MRI's and they showed no tumor in the tumor bed.  So they did an MRA on Monday.  It showed she had a stroke some time in the last few weeks.  Are strokes common in brain cancer patients?  She was getting ready to start her 12th round of Temodar but the neuro oncologist told her she is done with chemo since she is recovering from a stroke.  She will see her neuro surgeon on november 12th and her cardiologist will call tomorrow along with her neuro opthalmologist.

I don't know what to think or how this affects her treatment/prognosis for the GBM.

Peggy

Hi Peg,

Yikes. It's really hard to know when a stroke has happened to someone who's already compromised with other issues, isn't it. Isn't a stroke essentially a blood clot that blocks circulation to part of the brain? I guess that's why chemo is out. How is her understanding of it now?

Sending love and hope,

Sarah

mother of Andy 27 dx gbm/pnet january 09

Peggy,

My husband had a stroke during (or shortly after) his resection (right temporal lobe) . They discovered it the following day, when he could not move his left arm or leg at all, they sent him in for a scan, and they saw a stroke  in his thalamus.  Interestingly, they still went ahead with standard radiation and Temodar. They never told us he couldn't.  But I imagine that since he was at the very beginning of treatment, that makes a big difference.  Since your MIL has no tumor showing on her MRI, maybe it's best to leave off that last chemo treatment.   I don't know how common strokes are in BT patients. My husband's blood pressure and glucose levels were through the roof when they did surgery on him, so I imagine that had a great deal to do with why he had the stroke.   I'm sure the chemo puts a lot of stress on the brain, and that may have contributed to her stroke.  

Is she left with  any deficits other than the vision problems? Do you know what part of the brain was affected?

As far as prognosis, I do not think it has a big impact.  It has no effect on tumor growth- it's just an added complication on top of what everyone is already dealing with (as if GBM alone were not enough. horrible.)

Take care.

Thanks for the info!  They said it was near the part that has to do the vision.  Other than being exhausted and having vision problems that is all the deficits we are seeing.  She is scared to end the chemo and scared that she had a stroke and didn't know it.  I am interested to find out how much her vision is impaired since the surgery to remove the tumor caused her to lose part of her peripheral vision.  I am nervous for her to have another stroke and it cause more damage.  She sees her NS on November 12th and think that appt will help us understand more about where the stroke happened. 

And yes, adding this on to the GBM is just another thing to deal with....which I hate to have my MIL go through.  She was already scared of what her future holds and this adds to it along with having 6 doctor appts in November.  But I am grateful that no more damaged was caused!