ntebyanian
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Posts:11
Hello,
My mom had Whole Brain Radiation for multiple mets to the brain from lung cancer ( EGFR + exon 19 and T790 M negative) that ended two months ago. She was started on Tagrisso as first line therapy due to some evidence of leptomeningeal disease. Unfortunately she has now developed symptoms suggesting interstitial lung disease and she is now off of the Tagrisso. She responded well to the drug both in the brain and the lung after just six weeks. My question is since she is now off of the drug, how long do we have until progession of disease develops again in the brain.
Thank you
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Reply # - July 2, 2016, 09:44 AM
Hi ntebyanian,
Hi ntebyanian,
There really is no definite answer to the question of how quickly you may see progression in the brain. Whole brain radiation tends to be effective in clearing the brain of cancer cells, to the extent that for many patients, if they experience progression it occurs elsewhere in the body first. On the other hand, WBR does not tend to be especially effective against leptomeningeal carcinomatosis.
My hope is that your mom doesn't actually have leptomeningeal disease (as the evidence of it can often be equivocal), and that combination of whole brain radiation and Tagrisso has cleared all of the cancer cells from her central nervous system.
JimC
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