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Suggest Treatment For Stage 4 Lung Cancer
Question: ...Hey. My sister was recently diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Last week they tested her tissues for cancer type and found out that it's breast adenocarcinoma. She has never had breast cancer, and they've never found anything in her breast. The doctors at this hospital are disputing the results and want to do another biopsy. Currently the cancer is in her left lung, a little bit of involvement in the lighting of the lung(the pleural) and a few lymph nodes in the middle of the chest. Her symptoms right now are coughing(no blood) and a little bit of fatigue. According to the doctors, it is a "very low burden of disease" What I wanted to ask was, her prognosis for stage 4 lung cancer(based on what I read on the internet) wasn't very good, but, in general, would a breast cancer type in the lung be better or worse than a primary lung cancer type? The doctors are doing some more tests before starting treatments and I wanted to know more about it. Any info would be great.
Brief Answer:
in general breast cancer is better
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
In general breast cancer is more treatable than lung cancer, but unfortunately when it gets to stage 4 that is pretty severe in either type.
Prognosis is poor in any form of cancer that has progressed to stage 4 however, that said people are all different and some respond remarkably well to treatments. I have had many patients with stage 4 cancer go into remission for many years after the appropriate treatments. They may need to do another biopsy though because they really need to know the tissue type to plan the appropriate treatments.
Let me know if you have further questions,
Dr. Robinson
in general breast cancer is better
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
In general breast cancer is more treatable than lung cancer, but unfortunately when it gets to stage 4 that is pretty severe in either type.
Prognosis is poor in any form of cancer that has progressed to stage 4 however, that said people are all different and some respond remarkably well to treatments. I have had many patients with stage 4 cancer go into remission for many years after the appropriate treatments. They may need to do another biopsy though because they really need to know the tissue type to plan the appropriate treatments.
Let me know if you have further questions,
Dr. Robinson
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Thank you for the answer.. Yes, I know, stage 4 is not great in either case. Even seeing the letter 4 or IV scares the hell out of me now. I'm just trying to find some shred of hope in any way I can.
Is stage 4 bad mainly because it's bound to spread to other areas eventually? According to the doctor, it hasn't spread much yet, and it is, in her own words "very low burden of disease." But I have noticed that she is coughing more.
Just to go into further detail, the tissue results where 85% breast adenocarcinoma and 11 percent neck/salivary gland. She has no cancer in any of those areas as far as the doctors know.
Is stage 4 bad mainly because it's bound to spread to other areas eventually? According to the doctor, it hasn't spread much yet, and it is, in her own words "very low burden of disease." But I have noticed that she is coughing more.
Just to go into further detail, the tissue results where 85% breast adenocarcinoma and 11 percent neck/salivary gland. She has no cancer in any of those areas as far as the doctors know.
Also, fyi, she's not a smoker/drinker
Brief Answer:
low burden of disease is good
Detailed Answer:
In either breast or lung cancer stage 4 (or IV) means there has been metastasis out of the tissue of origin into another organ or system. This is never a good sign.
Here's a link for breast cancer stages where you can read more about it
http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis/staging#stage4
For most cancers stage 4 is very serious but depending upon her response to the treatments she could very well have a remission. Low burden of disease means that there is not a huge tumor burden. This makes it more likely to be treatable with radiation or chemo.
I hope she does well and let me know if you have further questions.
Dr. Robinson
low burden of disease is good
Detailed Answer:
In either breast or lung cancer stage 4 (or IV) means there has been metastasis out of the tissue of origin into another organ or system. This is never a good sign.
Here's a link for breast cancer stages where you can read more about it
http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis/staging#stage4
For most cancers stage 4 is very serious but depending upon her response to the treatments she could very well have a remission. Low burden of disease means that there is not a huge tumor burden. This makes it more likely to be treatable with radiation or chemo.
I hope she does well and let me know if you have further questions.
Dr. Robinson
Note: For further follow up on related General & Family Physician Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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