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I don't know if you are aware of my history of lung cancer. This October I will celebrate 25 years of lung cancer! It began with a Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma that was very fast growing. That was in 1997. I had a lower right lobectomy. Then 10 years later 3 lesions were found in my upper left lobe and that lobe was removed. Then about 6 years later a lesion was found in my right upper lobe and that was zapped with SBRT. My hospital, Mass General in Boston was the first in the country to get the machine and I was the 5th in the trial that I was a part of to have it done! I'm part of history for SBRT! lol.
Anyway, that first zapping was every other day for an hour for 4 days. Then about 3 years later I had another one all along the staple line of my upper right lobectomy. That was more days and took about 1 1/2 weeks.
Now I have two lesions that are being watched. I have another one that will be zapped, most likely this summer. It's in my right upper again. The one in my lower left lobe hasn't done much for 6 years so at some point it will probably be zapped.
I have had both Proton and Photon SBRT. The Proton was the first and I have a feeling that that's what he'll use for the one that's changing. If so I know that I'll be put on prednisone because my lung got pretty aggravated after the SBRT. I hate prednisone! I think that I am a pretty nice, friendly person but when I'm on prednisone, watch out!
Things have changed since my last SBRT, which was 5 years ago so I don't know what to expect. My radiologist's specialty is SBRT with multifocal carcinomas so I trust him quite a bit! As the saying goes, with my life!
Thank you for the information about multimodality treatment. I'll check it out.
You might want to tamper down your need to plan ahead because lung cancer treatments have changed so much and so fast over the years that you just don't know from one minute to the next what will be available. My oncologist calls treatments for it whack-a-mole.
Since I have not quite one lung capacity I do have shortness of breath and I often run into trouble because I don't think about it and just go a mile a minute and have to stop.
Have you tried pulmonary rehab? That will help with your shortness of breath!
Take care and don't worry about schedules and the whens! Can you do that?
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Merry, thank you for your informative reply. You have given me an understanding of what I am dealing with. Questions: Was your first cancer diagnosed as multifocal or did that diagnosis come 10 years later with the development of multiple nodules? How much time between treating one nodule and another in the last ten years, and the size/characteristics of the nodule when treated? I am having to deal with an additional health issue and what to do depends on what will happen with my other nodules for the next six months. At the beginning of December, I learned I had both a lung problem and a severe coronary artery blockage. I did not do a stent because, I knew the blood thinning dual antiplatelet therapy required for 3-6 months would not allow me to do surgery on my lung. It was a good call! And recent studies show that in general management with medication and doing a stent have similar mortality rates. I had my VAT wedge surgery at end of Dec and it was 3.1cm moderately differentiated acinar adenocarcinomas. My 3 month CT scan showed no change with 1 nodule in left lung and 3 in the right lung (one in each lobe). The one in the left lung is the one that will be next for treatment, now too soon because if I do radiation they would want to do needle biopsy and that carries risk of lung collapse so I wait until there is a change and they can do radiation or even surgery without the needle biopsy. The other three nodules are smaller (2 are part/sub solid and the 3rd all groundglass). Since I am already a patient at Mayo for multifocal, I thought it best to have a cardiologist at Mayo as well to assure communication and coordination of treatments between my "competing" medical issues. I continue to have shortness of breath even though I have exercised almost every day for the last month. And if I walk indoors with an N95mask I am breathing through my mouth heavily. With exertion and a mask I am gasping for air. This is possibly a heart issue so now Mayo has scheduled me for an angiogram which will measure the blood flow and actual narrowing of the artery especially because it is in a place where if I had a problem it would be quite serious. Unfortunately three months ago in the other hospital they identified the blockage as meeting the threshold to put in a stent, but did not measure more. That is key piece information to help me decide whether to stay on medication or do a stent. So this all makes me very anxious as I don't have an obvious answer. Cardiologist talked to Pulmonologist and he says multifocal is slow growing cancer. So 3-6 months without being able to do surgery is OK. My next CT scan is end June, six months from VAT wedge surgery. I am calm about the multifocal lung cancer because I see that it can be managed - look at you - but the heart thing puts a twist into it. Mayo said I had the option to stay on medication, but then Mayo encouraged me to do the angiogram to measure blood flow and narrowing so I will do it. I don't like options when I need recommendations because I know I lack knowledge to make best call.