I see this forum very helpful. I will appreciate if doctors can guide us here.
My mother is age 62, never smoked vegeterian diet. She is diagnosed with NSCLC Lung cancer stage 4, metastized to liver, bronchus and adrinal.
The biopsy report says:
Poorly differentiated non small cell carcinoma.
On immunohistochemistry, tumour cells are positive for CK7 and TTF-1 and very focally positive for p63.
She is in India and carries US visa, if she can be treated here. Since she is in India, we dont have her medical insurance here, and so i am first of all trying to find out what are the prognosis. I have copy of all the reports with me.
Does she have a survival scope? if so, what is the normal life expectancy in general scenarios with chemotherapy?
I can be reached by email at: ppgandhi11@hotmail.com or via cell phone 412 760 3362, i am in Raleigh, NC.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.
Reply # - March 10, 2015, 09:13 AM
Hello ppgandhi11,
Hello ppgandhi11,
Welcome to GRACE. I am sorry to hear of your mother's diagnosis. From experience, I know how difficult it is to face the uncertainty of treatment and prognosis.
Stage IV lung cancer is not curable, but treatments seek to increase both the quantity and quality of life. Although there are statistics for median survival for stage IV patients, it is good to remember that these numbers apply to a large number of patients, not an individual. Also, the trend is for some patients, especially those who never smoked, to better those medians by quite a bit. In that regard, it would be advisable to have her cancer cells tested for the presence of genetic mutations/alterations such as EGFR and ALK, for which targeted therapies exist.
The best place for you to start would be Dr. Weiss' "An Introduction to Lung Cancer" here.
I can't tell you whether it would be best for her to come to the U.S. for treatment, since I'm not familiar with the care available to her where she lives, but there are plenty of good institutions not far from Raleigh, including the University of North Carolina, which has a fine lung cancer program with which GRACE's Dr. Weiss is affiliated.
Please let us know if you have further questions, as we are here to help.
JimC
Forum moderator