Brain tumor in fright frontal lobe but speech is slurring? - 1254070

howardw
Posts:2

Hi everyone,

The neurologist said that the left side of the brain controls speech. My mom has a tumor on the right side. Her speech has deteriorated and she is slurring her words.Her cognitive functions are alright.

She did have multiple mets but except for one the rest disappeared while on Tarceva. Could the mets be so small they don't show on any scan, but still affect her at the microscopic level?

She had Cyber knife on the remaining tumor it never WBR.

Howard

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Reply # - February 21, 2013, 10:22 PM

Dr West
Posts: 4735

While that's possible, it's not likely at all that metastases that are so small they can't be seen would lead to neurologic symptoms. One thing we'd be concerned about is the possibility of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, or cancer cells in the fluid bathing the brain and spinal cord, and attaching to the meningeal lining around the brain and spinal cord. That can sometimes be seen on scans (though it's notoriously difficult and unreliable), and sometimes it is diagnosed by a lumbar puncture ("spinal tap") that takes out fluid from outside of the spinal cord and detects cancer cells there. Unfortunately, if that's the case, it's a notoriously difficult complication to treat effectively.

There are also many other things that can lead to these kind of changes, including medication issues and/or metabolic issues, and these are more readily reversible. It's certainly appropriate to contact her doctor to discuss the potential value of a further workup to learn more.

Good luck.

-Dr. West

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