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Squamous cell carcinoma !! Any Hope!!
My father, an 81 year old, was diagnosed with non small cell lung cancer (squamous cell carcinoma) back in 2015. He had a lobectomy of the right lower lobe on Jan 2016. A few months later he developed dizziness and had an MRI, which showed 3.5 cm left parientotemporal superficial enhancing lesion. Craniotomy was performed and the tumor was removed on Aug 2016. Later on Gamma knife surgery was performed after 2 days of the craniotomy. He was doing well after that, but he had a series of medical complications, such as , arrhythmias, pulmonary embolism bacause aspirin was stopped for the surgery, thrombocytopenia due to the medication he was on "Kepra", pneumonia, and SIADH, with a prolonged hospitalization.
On Nov 2016, the MRI showed significant increase in the enhancment on the tumor bed with mild edema around it. It was unclear whether this represented recurrence of the brain metastasis or radiation necrosis.
Later on, another MRI & PET scan was performed on FEB 2017, which confirmed the radiation necrosis and tumor recurrence.
The doctors said that the only way to treat it is the surgery and he is not a candidate for radiation therpay.
My father refused to perform the surgery and he preferred to be on dexamethasone for the rest of his life. But he is having difficulties now with the speech and the movement, and his brain edema had increased.
I'm not convinced with this, i believe that there os a hope!
Do you think there is a hope with Mayo clinic!!
Regards
Intesar
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Hello @intesar I am Scott and I welcome you to Connect. Here you will find many folks who can share their experiences and journeys through medical demands and conditions of a wide variety. I will add though most of us are not any sort of medical expert, nor have we had medical school training.
My wife had brain cancer for 14+ years and was diagnosed at the age of 49. Often the doctors made a prognosis, whose timing proved wrong, but not erroneous. For instance they told us she might live for 7 years and she lived for 14. Once in home hospice they said she might live for less than 6 months, but lived for 14 months. So, yes, there is always hope. However, it is always wise, in my personal opinion, to take the words and diagnoses of the medical professionals to heart.
My wife had her second opinion done at Mayo as well as her biopsy and surgery. We found exceptional neuro-oncology care on their Rochester, Minnesota campus.
My wife also chose to not undergo several specific medical interventions as she made the decision she would rather have a higher quality of life versus just a longer one.
So as I said I do believe there is always room for hope, but it must be tempered by the information provided by those who know much more in the medical realm than those of us without their training and wisdom.
Have I at least partially answered your question?
Peace and strength!
Hello Scott, thank you so much for sharing your wife story and your answer. I really appreciate that, and yeah as you said there is always a room for hope .
Thank you so much again
Best regards