Saturday, December 15, 2018

ENCORE #100! – Metastatic Breast Cancer: Lung Cancer


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.


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