Lung Met = half year life?

[Mercy110]

My mum is a current stage 4 rectal cancer patient.
You can see my signature for what she has gone through. There are diffuse multiple lung mets and we are extremely worried.
My nurse friend told me today that stage 4 lung Mets means half year of life. Never feel more desperate. Please do tell me this
is not the truth.
And what are the possible coming treatments? Chemo? Targeted Therapy?

[stu]

Hi,
Your friend is sincerely wrong given everyone is different and even the Dr can only give a statistical average . My mum had a lung met and the watched it grow slowly for the best part of two years before we even knew about it . It was so slow growing .
There are many treatment options and certainly nobody told my mum anything like that . We are going on a cruise at the weekend and her bags are packed for that , nothing else.
I really am unsure where she has plucked six months from as no one has suggested anything like that to my mum .
Stay strong , only follow medical advise from the team and enjoy your mum's company . Our own dear BB had lung mets since 2009 .
Honestly it's best to only accept guidance from her clinical team .
Take care and enjoy your weekend.
Stu

[ams5796]

Hi,

Stu's right. Lung mets are usually slow growing. I've had them a few times. Luckily, they were able to remove them with VATS twice and SBRT the third time. Even if they are not able to remove your mom's lung mets right now they may be able to do something down the road after chemo etc. There was a time when my oncologist thought I had too many to remove (long story, turned out to be mostly an infection at that time) and even then he told me that he saw people live seven years with lung mets. And, who knows what kind of advancements can happen in the next seven years. Like a old friend on here used to say, you just keep kicking the can down the road until there's something else they can do for you.

Good luck to your mom.


Ann

[mypinkheaven]

My mum is a current stage 4 rectal cancer patient.
You can see my signature for what she has gone through. There are diffuse multiple lung mets and we are extremely worried.
My nurse friend told me today that stage 4 lung Mets means half year of life. Never feel more desperate. Please do tell me this
is not the truth.
And what are the possible coming treatments? Chemo? Targeted Therapy?

Ask your nurse friend exactly how she know this business about 1/2 year? She hasn't read about many people on this forum and other Facebook groups. Or me. I'm a year out from lung mets dx and all are stable and not growing with chemo. I do not believe she was telling you the truth. She may have been thinking of a more aggressive lung cancer which is different than lung mets from rectal cancer.

Lung mets are usually slow growing and some doctors just monitor them. Chemo is the usual first choice of treatment. Then there's VATS, SBRT, RFA and Proton Beam therapy. So there are options.

[Lee]

I believe the nurse friend is thinking of "lung cancer" vs "colon cancer lung met". I believe some forms of "lung cancer" can be very aggressive and fast growing. My DB"s mother in law was diagnosed with stage III lung cancer, 4 months later she passed. Supposely it was an aggressive form of cancer.

There are many people on this form who are dealing with lung mets 2 yrs and beyond.

Don't give up the hope,

Lee

[Mercy110]

I went through the Pet Scan of my mum, which is done on April, again. There are very small lung nodules which are classified as "inactive" .

The report said "several tiny inactive non-calcified lung nodules are noted at RML measuring 0.4cm, at RLL measuring 0.4cm and at LLL measuring up to 0.5 cm are seen".
Now one of them grow into 1.05cm largest (Please refer to my signature), which makes me wonder if this is rely lung mets...
The current CT report classified them as "diffuse scattered multiple pulmonary nodules (consistent with pulmonary mets)".

As there are multiple and diffuse, I guess surgery is not working this time? Any similar cases here?
Thanks a lot!

[NHMike]

Probably thinking of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer. A coworker was diagnosed with this back in Spring 2016 and he's still alive and working full-time. He has to stay on a targeted therapy so that the mass doesn't grow (it has stopped shrinking) until a cure is found. But your mother has CRC which has spread so it should be options for treatment.

[Mercy110]

My doctor friend (not an onco but doctor) said the report is not good. And she suggests my mum to use target therapy. In Hong Kong this is kind of a last resort...Rely worried. I do know that there are stage 4 survivors in this forum, and I hope my mum is one of them...
Once target therapy has been used, does that mean the patient have to stay with it?

[NHMike]

My doctor friend (not an onco but doctor) said the report is not good. And she suggests my mum to use target therapy. In Hong Kong this is kind of a last resort...Rely worried. I do know that there are stage 4 survivors in this forum, and I hope my mum is one of them...
Once target therapy has been used, does that mean the patient have to stay with it?

Sometimes there is a complete response and the patient is NED. I have seen this with Keytruda after three to six weeks of treatment. Sometimes it shrinks the tumor to a certain size and then has to be taken or else the tumor starts growing again. Genetic testing is done to determine whether or not the patient is a candidate for targeted therapy.

We're just near the beginning of Immunotherapy treatments and these have a lot of promise but we don't have miracle drugs for all of the types of CRC yet.

[steiconi]

I had lung mets; my onco said to do chemo and expect to live a couple of years.
That was 5 years ago; I got a second opinion, did surgery and chemo, and am NED.

[Mercy110]

My doctor friend (not an onco but doctor) said the report is not good. And she suggests my mum to use target therapy. In Hong Kong this is kind of a last resort...Rely worried. I do know that there are stage 4 survivors in this forum, and I hope my mum is one of them...
Once target therapy has been used, does that mean the patient have to stay with it?

Sometimes there is a complete response and the patient is NED. I have seen this with Keytruda after three to six weeks of treatment. Sometimes it shrinks the tumor to a certain size and then has to be taken or else the tumor starts growing again. Genetic testing is done to determine whether or not the patient is a candidate for targeted therapy.

We're just near the beginning of Immunotherapy treatments and these have a lot of promise but we don't have miracle drugs for all of the types of CRC yet.

Thank you for replying me. I have just checked for Keytruda in HK. This is an expensive drug that cant find in public hospital. It is also being called as Immunotherapy instead of target therapy in HK too. The truth is even though I know this drug, I cant rely afford it...Thanks anyway.

[Lee]

As Mike reported Keytruda has helped a few people on this forum. Something to consider. I truly believe Immunotherapy therapy is that one step closer to finding a cure for cancer. Maia, a member on this forum is a great source for immunotherapy trial going on almost anywhere in the world. If you are interested, you might want to get in touch with her.

There is a doctor in Germany, Dr Rollin I believe, who has had great success with people who have multiple mets in lungs. A few on this forum have gone to him (USA to Germany) and were pleased with the results.

Hope this helps,

Lee