Stage 3 Lung cancer inoperable

This sounds very similar to my mum. She has a 5-6cm tumor in her right lung along with a nearby lymph node and one between the two lungs. NSCLC stage 3b. She’s started chemo and radio for 6 weeks. Then it will be immune therapy for 1 year. The Dr told us that to have immune therapy the cancer cells need to have a high PD-L1, my mums was at 90% which means it may help against the cancer she has…. The test for this took some time to come back so maybe they don’t have the results of it yet? 
im so sorry you find yourselves going through this, its scary but hopefully with some more info and when the treatment starts you’ll feel a bit better about it all. X

I'm sorry you and your mum are going through this too. Do you mind me asking if the treatment was very debilitating. We've been told by the Oncologist its going to be tough. I cant help thinking about quality of life vs longevity. How is your mum coping and how do you stay positive. 

Hi JoC61

Chemoradiation is tough as it delivers a lot of treatment over a short period of time.  That said, it is very much doable.  Tiredness is the main side effect, due to the radiotherapy.  Any side effects will pass. 

Kegsy x  

She’s doing really well with it. Had one full round of chemo and started radio yesterday (it was quick and easy) I know it will get harder as she gets towards the end, but so far the only side effect is exhaustion. She’s still eating ok and maintaining weight.
Everyone is different though and there are a lot of different chemo drugs. 

How are you getting on? So sorry this has happened to you. Sounds very similar to my dads diagnosis and treatment. He handled the chemo and radio really well - weirdly he actually got better with it because it shrunk his tumour so his cough got much better which was nice. B x

JoC61 said:

we were told There is a 20% chance of cure. without treatment he could live for 12 to 18 months. Immuno therapy was also mentioned if he is suitable for it. I presume they need to wait to see how he responds to the treatment. He has to have another scan on Monday to see how the affected nodes move whilst breathing, coughing etc and treatment will start in about 3 weeks. I don't understand why there's a 3 week wait.

Molecular testing for mutations is required to find out whether immunotherapy is a suitable treatment for someone.  Sometimes there's also a requirement that conventional treatment has been tried first.

A fair bit of planning is required for radiotherapy.  In addition to the simulation scan which you mentioned, I had a separate scan again to make a mould and be tattooed.  I also had a high definition CT to make sure I didn't have any lung damage which would make me unsuitable for radiotherapy.  Somewhere in there I had lung function tests but I don't recall exactly where.