Need info on brain mets and gamma knife chemo

jkrejchik

My mother-in-law was just recently diagnosed with 13-15 inoperable lesions on her brain and one spot on each lung two days after her reconstructive surgery from a double mastectomy for triple negative breast cancer.  She's going through radiation and has an appointment with her oncologist on the 15th and I'm trying to gather information to ask the the doctor...things she may not think of or know anything about for her best option of treatment.  The gamma knife chemo was suggested, but I know nothing about the treatment itself.  Any other suggestions would be welcome.  I feel helpless in helping her and I'm trying to educate myself to educate her and the rest of the family.  Thank you for your comments and support.

 Jen

Lindissima

Here's an article I found on another thread on gamma knife.

http://www2.mdanderson.org/depts/oncolog/articles/09/7-8-julaug/7-8-09-1.html

Good luck to you and your MIL.  I believe the gamma knife (stereotactic radiation and the chemo are seoarate treatments. 

Lindissima

Another useful site.

http://www.brainmetsbc.org/ 

EGAL

Jen,

What a great DIL you are!  I did have GAMMA Knife but I only had one lesion.  I don't know about doing it on multiple lesions.  I would think Whole Brain Radiation would be needed for that.  But, GAMMA is done in one day, it is painless (except the helmet that is screwed into the skull in four places).  That is uncomfortable and it is worn all day.  After the helmet is on they map out the radiation. Takes a while.  I stayed one night in the hospital and then could have gone back to work the next day (says them!).  I took a few days off as I was tired.  Good luck to your MIL, keep us posted~ 

I didn't have chemo for the brain, but had 4 AC's and 4 Taxotere, plus 36 Rads to the breast area and then one year of Herceptin (for HER2+) then just when I finished with that, the brain lesion came.  Had no break , was hoping for a little R&R. 

Ellen

jkrejchik

Thanks for the info!  The information I've found so far does indicate the treatments are different depending on the situation.  Thanks again!

Jen

jkrejchik

Ellen,

Thank you for your response. I feel like I'm shooting in the dark with gathering random information.  I really feel like I don't have a lot of specific information about her lesions or her diagnosis.  All I know is they said they're inoperable, but I don't know if that also rules out stereostatic surgery.  I know they want to do chemo, but I've heard that it's not effective from the neck up, so then why would they do it and put her through that? 

 I'm so sorry that you didn't get a break.  That had to have been tough.    Is everything going alright now?

Jen

LuAnnH

Actually your MIL is not necessarily ruled out for SRS, that is a radiation tx that is done on brain lesions.  Usually with lots of brain mets they tend to recommend whole brain radiation because of the chance of many more micro mets seeded in the brain.  The site www.branimetsbc.org is actually a very good site with lots of valid information in it about brain mets.

More than likely they will start some from of radiation for your MIL's brain mets then when that is complete they will start some chemo regimen for her mets to the lung.  Doing rads and chemo together is not a good thing, it can make one very ill.

Right now the biggest things that need done is more than likely a PET/CT or CT & bone scan to determine if there are any other met sites and to see if they can bx one of the sites to determine the hormone status.  This can change from original bc to mets so it should be done..  After than then you need to map out the tx options.  Since you metioned her reconstruction, was that completed?  If not, then she will need to make some decisions about that so they can be sure she heals properly.  Chemo can interfere with that healing process.

Sorry, probably sounds like tons of stuff but this is some of the beginning things you need to look at.  I hope all goes well and her tx starts up soon