WHEN BRAIN RADIATION DOES NOT WORK - 1250243

gabitaylor
Posts:6

My father was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer last year. In March of this year an MRI revealed one brain tumor. My father had ten rounds of whole brain radiation. In May he had radiosurgery after another MRI showed no change in brain tumor. This month an MRI showed the tumor has doubled in size.

Since neither the whole brain radiation nor the radiosurgery worked, what options does my dad have. Doctors told him in March that surgery was too risky because tumor is on left side of brain.

I would greatly appreciate your help with this.

Mali

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Reply # - November 14, 2012, 07:58 AM

catdander
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Hi gabitaylor, I'm so sorry your dad didn't respond to treatment. I don't know that there are other treatment options to treat his brain. But I'm not a doctor and my understanding is pretty shallow.
What are his doctors saying?

I'll contact a doctor for comment. You should hear back within a day.

Janine
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Reply # - November 14, 2012, 03:14 PM

Dr West
Posts: 4735

Mali,

Sometimes repeat irradiation is done, though there isn't a lot of research on that. Here's a discussion of the topic, including a link to a discussion by Dr. Zelanna Goldberg, a former GRACE faculty member, about the issue of repeat WBR.

http://cancergrace.org/forums/index.php?topic=4546.0

Unfortunately, there is no good answer about how to manage this kind of situation.

Good luck.

-Dr. West

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