From the first moment my wife discovered
she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even
ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have
received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than
mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started
this blog…
Some fifteen
years ago, my wife’s mother passed away from lung cancer.
A child of her
times, she smoked often and heavily for a number of years while raising four
children, then quit – long before I met her.
Diagnose with
lung cancer in 1994, she took chemotherapy, went into remission and finally succumbed
to the disease in (I think – and my wife will correct me!) 1997.
Her disease was
DIFFERENT than the type of lung cancer that can flare up after a woman (or
rarely a man) is treated initially for breast cancer. Lung cancer after breast
cancer is most often caused by BREAST CANCER cells that have invaded other
organs and therefore are called metastatic breast cancer. The word “metastatic”
was used in the 1570s and comes from the Greek metastasis which
means "transference, removal, change.” The roots are meta which means "over, across"
plus the word histanai which means "to place, cause to stand.”
The medical use for "shift of disease from one part of the body to
another" dates from 1660s in English.
“Metastatic
cancer to the lungs is the spread of cancer from another region of the body to
the lungs. The place where cancer begins is called the primary cancer. For
example, if breast cancer spreads to the lungs, it would be called breast
cancer with metastasis (spread) to the lungs. In this case, breast cancer would
be considered the ‘primary’ cancer.”
Symptoms that
would lead doctors to believe that the breast cancer had metastasized to the
lungs are similar to those of “regular” lung cancer and would be warning signs
that a person would need to see their doctor as soon as possible. They include:
a cough that persists over time, or does not go away with treatment; coughing
up blood, difficulty breathing (due to decreased airflow by a tumor obstructing
the large airways or spread through the lungs); wheezing (caused by the
interference of airflow through an airway obstructed by a tumor); pain in the chest,
back, shoulder, or arm (when a lung tumor presses on nerves around the lungs); repeated
lung infections such as pneumonia or bronchitis; hoarseness; and lastly, lung
cancer CAN have no apparent symptoms and only appear when a chest x-ray is done for another reason.
As well, “general
symptoms” of lung cancer can sometimes present with vague concerns such as
fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite, and even depression can be a symptom of
lung cancer as well as many other conditions.
Treatment for
cancer metastatic to the lungs is usually determined by the primary cancer, or
origin of the cancer. Systemic therapy (chemotherapy, biological therapy, targeted
therapy, hormonal therapy), local therapy – which might include surgery
or radiation therapy), or a combination of these treatments. The choice of
treatment generally depends on the size, location, and number of metastatic
tumors; the patient’s age and general health; and the types of treatment the
patient has had in the past.
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