New Brain Mets Diagnosis Needing Surgery; Looking for Hope!

My mother recently was admitted to the hospital after experiencing severe pain, headaches, and general loss of balance. CT scans revealed a spread of her metastatic breast cancer from her right lung (original location) to her left lung. There's been additional growth in a lymph node in her chest, and some evidence of cancerous growth on the skin. Additionally, they identified a tumor in her brain indicative of additional metastatic spread. She is scheduled to undergo surgery on Friday to remove the tumor in her brain, which will be followed by local radiation, and new chemotherapy treatments.

This news comes as a bit of a shock to my Mom and I since she was very stable over the past 6 months on the COC protocol and not taking chemotherapy. She was initially diagnosed with Stage IV TNBC (mets to right lung) back in Jan 2020. After undergoing chemotherapy (Abraxane), immunotherapy (Tecentriq), along with COC protocol and Jane Mclelland vitamin/supplement plan, she made significant progress in reducing the size of her lung mets to less the 1cm. A break from chemotherapy ensued for about 6 months with CT scans every 3 months. Each CT scan showed stable results until this one.

Really searching for some hope and options as we deal with this new development. It's pretty deflating to have such positive progress as of late and encounter this setback. Makes me question what we're missing when it comes to the COC protocol and our vitamin/supplement plan. We've recently looked into the benefits of Fenbendazole and are looking into ways to get it and see if it'll help her condition.

Hoping there are others with TNBC and brain mets experiences we can learn from as we cope with this new development.

Hi moth,

Thanks for the thread references, I'll check them out.

I learned today that she is a candidate for Trodelvy and that'll be the plan for her after recovery from surgery. Excited to see a new and promising chemo option for her moving forward. I'll be meeting with her oncologist tomorrow, but I believe she'll be doing Trodelvy only. She developed some side effects after taking Tecentriq for a long time that led to her getting put on a steroid. Stomach pains were her most challenging side effect when on the immunotherapy drug after several cycles.

The surgeon mentioned that the surgery itself tends to weaken the blood/brain barrier. Sounds like that could be a good thing for chemo, but perhaps a risk for the benefits of the blood/brain barrier. Her brain tumor is on the outside of her brain, and the surgeon was pretty confident the procedure would be straightforward. While the idea of brain surgery is quite daunting, it was comforting to hear the confidence of the surgeon. Pretty surprised to hear that recovery and release from the hospital could be the next day.

I appreciate the response, always comforting to hear from others in the community.

Surgery was a success today. My mom took a while to come around from the anesthesia which caused some temporary concerns as she had a hard time moving her extremities after the surgery. However, after another hour or so that was no longer an issue. She's recovering in the ICU overnight. She's still experiencing some pain in the head area post op, but I'm hoping that improves over time. The doctor claims that she'll be able to get released as soon as tomorrow, but I'm a bit skeptical she'll recover that quickly.

Here's to hoping for a speedy recovery and effective radiation/chemo treatments to follow.

So it appears I've spoken too soon in regards to her recovery. According to the surgeon, we were expecting a recovery period of a couple days before she would be released. She moved out of the ICU the day after surgery which is good, but her recovery is progressing very slowly. In fact, she has been having a very difficult time moving around on her own and walking.

Since surgery last Friday, she remains in the hospital and is undergoing physical therapy for 3 hours a day for the next 10-14 days. The physical therapy is focused on her being able to walk, she spent her first session trying to walk with a walker 500 feet.

I'm pretty disturbed by the stark contrast with the surgeon's estimate of a quick recovery compared to how she's actually doing. The surgeon expected some issues with vision out of her left eye after surgery (as the tumor was impacting that area on the right side of her brain). She's still dealing with pain from the operation... but this lengthy physical therapy and extended hospitalization has me concern that something went wrong.

Really wondering if my concern is warranted, or this is kind of recovery path is something others have been through or observed.