[annettchen]

I'm stage IV bone only at this point, and in Canada. My Onc told me in a somehwat "veiled" way that "as per protocol" she would not send me in for brain MRIs. However, if I felt any possible symptoms, she would definitely have them checked out with an MRI sooner rather than later. So in other words: if I had a headache (or the like) I should tell her sooner rather than later, and that would trigger her sending me to an MRI to get it checked out.

I have also heard that from a treatment perspective it does not make much of a difference when they are found. I disagree, though, for 2 reasons: friend of mine recently died from brain and bone marrow / spine mets, nad it all happened way to quickly. She was HR+, HER2-, no one suspected brain mets, as it was rather unlikely in her case. The mild symptoms she had were misdiagnosed until the point in time where it was really too late to help her. Second reason: I would argue that there's a likelyhood that if found early, you can often still use gamma knife, not WBRT. I personally would prefer Gamma Knife over WBRT, if I had a choice.
But that's just my five cents...