Stage IV Malignant Pleural Effusion

I don't have your type of cancer - I've got stage 4 lung cancer - EGFR positive. One of my main problems has been pleural effusion and after several standalone drains I had an IPC put in about 7 weeks ago just before I started on treatment. It's been so much better being able to drain the fluid at home as often as I need to to manage symptoms. My husband does it for me, although I now control the flow of fluid as it's much more comfortable. The amount of fluid has reduced a lot - started at 500 mls every two days - today was 100 mls after four days. I'm hoping it will continue to improve and it won't be too long until the drain can be removed.

Hi - I had pleural effusion which was the first symptom of my secondary breast cancer. I thought I might have cracked a rib but it was the excess pleural fluid causing pressure & pain around the rib - this showed up in the xray that the GP requested and led to my referral to the Secondary Breast Cancer team. It was eventually diagnosed as secondary Triple Negative (even though my primary in 2015 had been ER+ve), and it had already spread to rib, spine, skull, liver, lymph nodes, and around the lung without me noticing ! :-(

Due to the pain & shortness of breath I asked to see the Pleural Team while waiting for the biopsy to find the type of cancer and immunotherapy test results, so I saw them before actually starting any treatment.
I had the pleural effusion drained (by inserting a tube through my back and into the pleural area at the bottom of the lung). This was done twice, about 3 weeks apart, draining 1.5 litres the first time, then 1.2 litres the second time. At that point they mentioned the possibility of inserting a long-term drain (like Janny5678) but I asked to wait to see if chemo would help reduce the fluid. I had just had a PICC line inserted and didn't want another tube coming out of me unless essential.

I went back for a third check with the pleural team about 3 weeks after that, having started Gem-Carbo chemotherapy by this stage, but the effusion was starting to dry up so they suggested waiting to see what happened. By the fourth visit the fluid had mostly gone, and I've not had trouble with it since.
I'm now on the 5th out of 6 cycles of chemo,

I still get some shortness of breath but I've been told that this is probably due to the chemo reducing my haemoglobin levels rather than any effusion.

So it may be worth asking your oncologist or the pleural team if the treatment they plan to put you on might dry up the effusion ?

Best of luck with whatever you decide, and your course of treatment.