Hi Denise @denise96 , That's a hard question to answer, as each patient is different, and there are many types of lung cancer too, some more aggressive than others. With his weight being so low and his history of not taking the best care of himself, he likely doesn't have much in his reserves. You are certainly keeping a close eye on him, and you'll notice changes.

He's sleeping a lot, but that's not too usual. The lack of balance that you've mentioned is of interest but may be from the medications, not from any type of tumor. You'll likely see more traditional lung cancer symptoms at first, such as a non-traditional cough, hoarseness, or wheezing. It may be hard to assess new pain; usually abdominal, back or bone.

From my personal experience, I believe my lung cancer was growing for (at least) months, if not years before I felt it. There's no way to know. I was not eligible for lung screening, so mine was stage IV before I knew about it. I started with a cough that came with a chest spasm that made it hard to talk. Once it started to spread and my immune system just couldn't keep up, it took over very quickly. Within two months I went from having a slight cough to being in pretty rough shape. At that time, I didn't think I would make it another 2 months. Then the doctors found a treatment that worked for my type of lung cancer, a specific gene-mutation based lung cancer called ALK Positive. Alectinib (Alecensa) was like a magic pill for me, and I'm still here 4+ years later.

There's just no way to know what the rest of his life (or any of our lives) will look like. As I mentioned, I think you'll see changes that will be notable. We have no idea how long it will be before you start noticing those changes. Remind me, was his cancer metastatic when it was diagnosed? Was he experiencing any symptoms at that time?

My PSA, if you qualify for lung screening take advantage of that benefit. If you don't qualify, but are ever offered a simple chest x-ray do it!