In a bad place...

Lorna

My husband had 10 sessions of whole brain radiotherapy over 3 years ago for several brain mets from primary lung cancer. He is just as forgetful now as he was then, so no change there. He was angry when on steroids but the therapy has kept him alive and relatively well. They suggested wbr because with secondaries you can’t see them all on a scan because there can be lots of tiny mets. Our oncologist said it would mop them all up and so far, the treatment has worked. He had no real side effects other than taste issues which slowly went away. I know that it’s easy for me to say but please don’t be scared of this treatment.

I wish you all the luck in the world.

B x

B..... Thank you so much for giving me some hope. At the moment im in a hopeless silly place and your message has given me something. I have to see Oncologist wednesday for mri results... and planning but i already know mri results gp told me. I have totally written myself off at the moment. BUT i feel so well its odd. No problems apart from panic attacks  which i feel are comimg from steroids a they increased dose slightly over 2 weeks ago . Its the brain... its so scary so unknown. Mine is metastasis from Ovarian cancer virtually unheard of... but im the 2nd patient hes seen with it. 

I live life normally as i can ..will Radiotherpy change all that ? will it buy time? So gutted i cant have the Stereoradiotherpy that was always planned..to me november 25th to now has taken too long and im angry. Got to have weekly taxol after all this brain stuff... but nust dont see mysrlf have whole brain Radiotherpy..although had it in my neck and it was a miracle. 

Thank you again and hope your husband is still doing very well x    

Lorna....hi!

My father in law has secondary metastatic melanoma to the brain. In December 2017 his symptoms returned after his craniotomy in September. The only option he was given after MRI was wbr and we were undecided due to the side effects. He had 5 consecutive sessions whilst in hospital and was fine.

Once home he did become increasingly drowsy and his hair fell out (not completely but very thin now). We all thought we'd made the wrong decision to go ahead with the treatment however after 6 weeks he is now much brighter and able. It's not made him as good as new but it has given him time which he certainly wouldn't have had without as his is extremely aggressive.

Only you and your family can decide but we are pleasantly surprised.

Good luck 

Hi Lorna

Just reading your post has given me hope! My mum is waiting for results of her brain scan. Had primary lung cancer last year and has been NED. But she’s now got arm weakness, probable brain Mets!! Xx

Hi Nic... i am sorry re your mums possible brain mets... but maybe its not hopefully. 

When do you get  the results? 

Mine were found in a CT scan last November. Now looking for 2nd opinions. as my oncologist says thats it. i have 9 mets now. So waiting game.

Please let me know how your lovely mum gets on. Good Luck x

Hi all these sound very familiar scenarios to me.

I was diagnosed with primary bowel cancer last February 2020 and had the requisite chemo which seemed to do the trick- however it has not been diagnosed in time and had spread to my lungs. The chemo works for 3-months or just one cycle but then I started to wobble and my son who is a doctor sent me for an emergency CCT where yeah it revealed I had the metastases in my brain which was affecting my coordination and walking as you can imagine.

When I complain that this has not been picked up in an earlier scan the answer was that they do not routinely scan for 4head cancer when you develop bowel cancer it is just not procedure. So I went through the same process of anger denial and acceptance as usual and like you I had gamma knife treatment in Bristol which was really fascinating . Feedback recently has been good on the tumours shrinking as a result but now it's in my liver! There's no good news but I really question why they do not do a full scad when your first diagnosed with any cancer as my treatment could have prevented The spread perhaps.

I wish you will well but please share your concerns as I've never done this before and I need to know what to look out for?

Looks like another summer of lying around in the garden hopefully not in too much discomfort!

Yours Hick