hey everyone--
I understand Kristen's point...that if there are no mets in other places that it's not likely that they have traveled to the brain.
But consider this...if a patient has stage III BC with strong node involvement, that makes it likely that there were cells that traveled elsewhere in the body. In my case, I had 3 months of neo-adjuveant Herceptin/Taxol/Carboplatin, and after surgery three more months of the same. After radiation I started on Herceptin by itself and will continue for one year. So I feel confident that my course of treatment will have taken care of any rogue cells floating around trying to cause trouble in my body
But...if there were cells that got past the nodes and were traveling around my body, it's very possible that they also traveled to my brain. And all this great treatment I have received won't have addressed those cells, which could be having a field day up there in my brain. It seems silly to wait until symptoms crop up to know if the cancer has spread to the brain.
I agree that it's not likely that brain mets will crop up if there aren't any other mets found, but now that treatment has gotten so aggressive in cases like ours, the cells probably don't have a chance to metastisize elsewhere. I am certain that if I hadn't received aggressive treatment that I would be stage IV by now.
I am not trying to be paranoid, I just am thinking realistically, since I firmly believe that it's up to each of us to ask our own questions. It sounds like there are many oncologists who don't see the need for this, but given the argument I make above, how do you think they can disagree?
:-)
Val
http://journals.aol.com/valleygirlvn...CancerUpdates/