TNBC - spread to brain

Hi Suzie1510 

I can understand why you feel terrified since being told that your sister's cancer has spread to her brain. 

I don't have any personal experience with this but noticed that your post hadn't had any replies yet. I've done a search in the forum and found these posts which mention brain mets for you to have a look through. You can then reply to any where you think they might be able to answer any questions you might have around treatment, etc.

It would be great if you could put something about your sister's diagnosis and treatment to date into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.

Hello Suzie1510

I am really sorry to hear about your sister. It must be really hard to find out that her cancer has spread after getting the all clear only a couple of months ago. 

It is understandable that you are feeling as you do and that you want to know what is ahead. Understandably you are worried about her and her young children.

When they talk about there being no cure but treatment what they are meaning is that although ultimately they can not usually aim for a cure- they will be looking at treatments that may help get her into a remission, control the cancer as long as possible and to treat any symptoms that she may be having. 

I will pop a couple of links below which will explain the treatments that she may be offered and what her options are. 

Understanding secondary breast cancer | Macmillan Cancer Support

Secondary breast cancer booklet | Macmillan Cancer Support

It is also important that you have support yourself as having a family member go through cancer and cancer treatment is really tough. I am sorry that you are having trouble sleeping and eating. I would recommend giving the Support Line a call and chatting things through. They can also have a look and see if there is any support in your local area, for both you and also your sister. There may be a Maggie's centre that could help. The important thing is that you all have support to help navigate this. 

Maggie's | Everyone's home of cancer care (maggies.org)

You may like to have a look at our Family and Friends forum.

Family and friends of people with cancer forum | Macmillan Online Community

I hope this helps a bit, but if there is anything else you need please do ask.

Jane

Hi Suzie,

So sorry to read about this... How is your sister doing now? Do you know what treatment she had in the beginning and how did the headaches start? 

What kind of surgery did she have? Were both her breasts and lymph nodes cancer free?

I have a similar situation to your sister... have been suffering from headaches and neck pain for about 1 week (about 2 weeks after finishing radiation therapy)

Hope your sister is doing well and that she has received the right treatment now.

After chemo and immunotherapy she was completely cancer free and anything they removed in surgery was just the boarder. She's still experiencing headaches, sickness, fatigue and weakend limbs ! It's heartbreaking to watch.

how are you. ? Have you got stage 4 brain mets? 

Thank you very much for the answer. I am waiting for the MRI, but I have had a headache (esp. temple region and around the ear) and neck for about 2 weeks. No other symptoms yet, but we will see. 

Did your sister only have a headache when the brain metastases were discovered or another symptoms including headaches?

Is she doing well apart from this? Hope they get the pain away, and that she feels good  

Wishing you and your sister a very Merry Christmas!

She only had headaches in the beginning. They are now saying that the symptoms are side affects from her Immunotherapy so she may not have her last treatment. She had a second brain scan due to so much pain which actually shows her brain mets have all shrunk by a considerable amount. 

How are you ? Have you had your scan now ? 

No, I'm having a scan next week. So this is good news for her, right? Has immunotherapy helped with brain metastases?

How long did she have headaches before they discovered they were metastases?

I don't think it's prolonged her life expectancy. She certainly doesn't feel like it has even though they have reduced. I guess we will never know if immunotherapy has helped or not ? She's not going to live long enough to see results. 

good luck with your scan