Brain Mets MRI -How to Read?
 

For those who have been diagnosed with brain mets - I'm wondering how your radiologists have read that the mets have "resolved". I've seen some people post that they have been told their brain has been declared "NED" or something similar. I'm just wondering if that means that the lesions no longer show up on the MRI - or if the edema has been resolved - or something else? It seems that some continue to show necrotic lesions - but I'm wondering what others have experienced.

With much gratitude,

Amy

Good Question
 

Good question that I need the answer to also, just keeping this post atop so we can get some answers!!

Waiting For A Miracle...and expecting one soon>>Believe51

NED is not a really well defined clinical term. In my case, the edema and the lesions were completely gone on the follow-up MRI, so I considered myself NED.

Necrosis can have complications as well, causing edema and pressure on the brain, but is not clinically cancer, so I would consider myself NED if necrosis was present but not active cancer tumor.

I know different people have different definitions, but go with whatever one makes you happy!

I love your smile
 

Esther, I love your spirit. You are an inspiration to all, and that smile speaks a thousand words!! As far as I am concerned, you are in NED!!

Waiting For A Miracle..and expecting one soon..>Believe51
(and if anyone knows it is Esther!!!)

Amy,
Brain mets may take months to completely resolve. Generally the physician who reads the MRI's compare them to previous ones. Hopefully they will show a marked decrease as the treatment takes effect.

Edema is actually a leak in the blood brain barrier and may be a blessing in discuise. Some oncologists believe that this may permit chemo treatments an opportunity to enter the brain that would have otherwise been blocked.

Hugs
Christine

Thanks, so much, for your responses.

I'm just trying to figure out what a "good" MRI would read. It seems to be a similar situation in both bone and brain mets - where you often continue to have something show up on scans, but the news is positive according to the oncologist. And then again, I sometimes read that others have scans show up as "clean" or "NED" or something similar. It all seems like semantics, but it makes you question if things are really going in the right direction.

Fondly,

Amy