Brain Mets and Radiation

[hmerch]

Hi All,
I have been a lurker on this site for quite some time and would like to thank all of you for the support your posts have provided to me.

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 which she beat with a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation.
It came back in 2005 with mets to the liver. She beat this too with Taxotere, Navelbine and Herceptin.
Now she has been diagnosed with mets to the brain. The doctors say its numerous mets and she wil be undergoing 5-10 rounds of radiation.
My question is ...how effective is radiation and is it the only thing that can be done at this time?

Worried...

[Cathya]

Hi;

Read Christines story.....she and her husband founded this site. Go to the Home page and click Community and look under Members Stories. She had mets to the brain and has been NED for quite a while. Her story is quite inspirational. I will be praying for you and your mother. How lucky she is to have you.

Cathy

[Lolly]

Hello and welcome; I just want to say there have been several on this site who've had Whole Brain Radiation for multiple mets. Hoping by bringing your thread to the top they will see it.

I think some of the small molecule chemo's cross the blood-brain barrier; Xeloda and Temodor are two that come to mind. Perhaps you and your mom can find out if chemo after rads is an option, to help prevent recurrence.

Ask how many mets and what size, as if they're not too large and not too numerous, could possibly be treated with a targeted radio-surgery such as Cyberknife.

<3 Lolly

[hmerch]

Thank you both for your responses.
I did read Christine's story...and you're right, it is quite inspirational.

Regarding chemo...my mother did mention something about taking chemo but she did not know which one it is. The other detail I got from her was that the brain mets were all over her brain and that they were numerous. I am a few continents away from her at the moment and so will hopefully get more details on the type of chemo, the size of the mets and the number once I reach there (which should be in a few days).

Actually I think what scared me was that the doc apparently told my mother that if the 5-10 radiations were successful then everything was good, but if not, then she has approx 1 year left.

Now that was scary....

hmerch

[Annemarie]

Hi,
Brain mets is always scary. I was diagnosed with Stage 3b bc in May 2000. In 2001, 2003 and 2004 I have had single lesion brain mets. The last two were very tiny because I get tested every 3 months. I had WBR and both craniotomy and gamma knife. I am on Herceptin (waiting for Tykerb to be approved) and take Temodar. Temodar I am told works best for primary tumors not mets. but there is some benefit. There is a lot of hope so you and your mother keep hanging in there!
Annemarie