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…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for
answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The
following entry appeared in December of 2011 – only a few months after my wife
was originally diagnosed.
Some twenty-two
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. 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.
References: http://lungcancer.about.com/od/symptomsoflungcance1/a/symptomslungca.htm,
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Sites-Types/metastatic
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