Dad just diagnosed with stage IV adenocarcinoma

@rkschaef - Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. It's very tough when one of our parents are I'll. Coughing is a reaction of the lungs to the cancer. There are medicines that can help to reduce swelling and lung irritation from cancer. It's a part of palliative care that takes place with advanced cancer care. You need to ask your oncologist or pulmonologist. Although your dad will most likely be tired with chemo or radiation itsy a different type of fatigue.

What kind of treatments will your father begin?

I also have stage 4 cancer as your dad. Coughing goes along with lung cancer. Treatments are not easy but everyone reacts different from chemo treatments. I went off after 7 months. Didn’t like being sick 7-10 days out of every 21 days. Been on immunotherapy only since. Better quality of life.

Thank you, Merry! We will have him as at his next appointment. He will likely do a combination of Keytruda and chemo (carboplatin). We are hoping he tolerates them well.

Thank you for your reply, and so sorry to hear you have this too. Happy to know immunology is working better for you! We hope you stay well!

Has he had any biomarker testing completed? They can do this using a tissue sample or a simple blood draw. This helps to determine the specific type of adenocarcinoma and can lead to a better match between the cancer and specific treatment.

@rkschaef- Good morning. If your dad is not getting any sleep you might want to call his doctor prior to his appointment. Is he up and around?

Yes he has, we are waiting on the results of these so he can see if he can get this type of treatment as well. My sister and I don’t know much about it, but just hope this can be an option for him.

I think he is getting some rest but is still pretty tired. He is also staying active, walking, bike riding, and doing tasks around the house... we will recommend he call just to see if there is anything they recommend.

He’s fortunate to have you and your sister to help navigate this new world. It’s not easy!! Good to hear that his care team has ordered the biomarker testing. It can take some time to get results (usually two weeks), but it has the opportunity to be a game-changer in treatment and ultimately quality of life. Hoping for the best for you all.

@rkschaef- I'm thrilled that he is active. Being active is a great sign and will help give him strength when in treatment.