Hi there,
My mum has metastatic breast cancer that has spread to her bones, lungs and brain. She was re diagnosed the beginning of last year and we found out a few months ago that it has spread to the brain and she has 21 tumours.
When we initially found out, the Dr's were happy for her to wait 6 weeks and then have another brain scan because she was doing so well and experiencing minimal side effects.
She is scheduled for another MRI of her brain next week, and from there, she has the option of full brain radiotherapy. Has anyone had experience with this before? We understand the possible side effects and the fact that they can be irreversible. Mum keeps asking why she should have this if she's feeling okay? She has had chemo in between scans and it has really knocked her for six.
Any advice or shared experience would really help
Thankyou so much
Hi
A really important question in almost any treatment is around risks and benefits. In order to give informed consent we need to be able to understand the costs and the benefits so your mum is really right to ask the question. Of course nobody can give any guarantees. It may well be worthwhile her and possibly you too talking with her oncology nurse to try to help decide if a particular course of treatment is the right next stage.
I know for my wife they were doing what seemed a lot of PET-CT scans but said they wes little benefit of them compared to an ordinary CT - I asked questions and they changed to ordinary CT and sometimes just ordinary x-ray.
Keep asking questions but remember the final decision does need to come from your mum.
<<hugs>>
Steve
