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Radiation for 70 yr old (glioblastomas grade 4)?

Posted by antoines @antoines, Jan 20, 2024

Good afternoon,
A friend of mine learned that her dad was diagnosed with glioblastomas (grade 4.) He is 70 years old. He did the surgery and the surgeon asked the family whether to proceed with the chemo and radiation.
At this moment, he can barely walk.
The radiation will be around 8 weeks and we were wondering what would be the benefit of it. Reading articles, it seems that for his age, the gain would be marginal and if it is to gain 3 months more but 2 of them (at the start) are lost in daily radiation at the hospital, is it worth it?
Also, we were wondering as one of the potential benefit would be an health improvement (after some potential difficult moment during the chemo) but we could not find whether or not it would be the case?
Finally, is there any benefit in doing only chemo (which consist in daily pills but can be done at home hence less demanding)?
Did anyone had this dilemma and what was their choice/guidance? Any (recent) article/research paper?
For me it seems the most important question instead of increasing the life expectancy, is the state he will be in during/after the treatment.

Thanks for reading and any help would be more than welcome in this difficult moment

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sheryl1963 | @sheryl1963 | Aug 22 3:44pm

Yes my dad is 83 and he has been diagnosed with a grade 4 brain tumour, the medical team in Royal prince alfred, they offered surgery to do a biopsy and then radiation. And yes, it would only tell us what type of brain tumour it is, but after the 4th mri scan they had cancelled the radiation and they then sent my dad back to the orange base hospital , and then we were told by the drs at the hospital that they could do radiation dad tried it for one session and then the next time he was so confused of what was happening and that is when I said, no
More treatment.then I said that we would take him home.in which we did he is now 4 months past since diagnosis.

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sheryl1963 | @sheryl1963 | Aug 22 4:09pm
In reply to @kylebar "My husband never really had pain at the end as long as he was lying in..." + (show)
Profile picture for kylebar @kylebar

My husband never really had pain at the end as long as he was lying in bed. He was bedridden the last six weeks he was alive. He would hurt when the nurses would bathe him and change him though. They sometimes sat him up in a wheel chair. He complained a lot about pain when he was sitting so they stopped doing that He had a friend who was a former nurse. She kept telling me that I needed to get him more therapy. I don’t see how therapy was going to stop the cancer from killing him. I was so amazed and shocked at some of the things people said to him near the end. His sister was telling him he was going to be all better soon as he lay in bed and could barely speak a few words and had not eaten in a week. He died four days later. I just found that to be very insensitive and rude.

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Hi Kyle my dad had been diagnosed but he has not had any treatment at all , he gets confused in date and time he has his watch on he is able to still tell us the time to the second. I am so sorry that you had found that with relatives and the lady that was a nurse previously she was not being empathetic at all. I am just finding it hard as the palliative care team have not been to see him he was linked with them by his GP. It’s just hard trying to navigate the aged care package at a level four. To commence but anyway Kyle thoughts are with you and your family.

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sheryl1963 | @sheryl1963 | Aug 22 4:18pm
In reply to @gregzacek "My wife had surgury last March, which gave her some qulity time for 4 months after..." + (show)
Profile picture for gregzacek @gregzacek

My wife had surgury last March, which gave her some qulity time for 4 months after the recovery. We were planning our next rip when on a Friday when I started noticing signs. She passed way the following Thursday. One week later. We got lucky in that she had no pain, I can tell you more if you want.

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Hi Greg, thank you I am so interested to hear more if you are able to let me know dad is not able to walk he has left sided weakness. But he thinks he can still walked yet on one of the transfer equipment he is able to march on the spot it’s amazing to watch him.i just don’t want him to suffer as time goes on. We are now waiting on the palliative care team to review him we have had him home from hospital since the middle of July and yes still waiting for the palliative care team. To review him for pain or any other treatment that they can support us with dad.

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