OT-Brain Cancer Diagnose

[riu girl]

My father has been battling prostrate/bone cancer for quite awhile and yesterday he was diagnosed with brain cancer. A lesion on his upper jaw fully penetrated the jaw bone and has attached to the brain, it is also growing the other way towards his ear. The whole side of his face was swollen a few days ago but with intense steriods the swelling has gone down. He is currently at a cancer hospital in Toronto receiving 5 -10 radiation treatments to further reduce the lesion. The doctor is calling the cancer "aggressive". In January he had a whole body scan and the lesion was very tiny and only on the jaw bone, so it has gone to his brain sometime since January.

My question to anyone who may know anything about this: Once a person has been diagnosed with this type of cancer, how long do they usually live?

We were told a month ago he had maybe one week left (due to severe kidney malfunction, but the kidneys started working properly again). The doctors are very vague about giving me an estimate on how long he has left, so I thought I would check on this board and see is anyone is at all familiar with brain cancer and this type of situation. Its sad, he is only 57.

Any info. would be greatly appreciated.
Suzy V.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

So sorry about your Dad.

As a nurse and a cancer survivor, I will say that there really is no way to predict a timeline on this - even if we were to know the complete picture. His medical team should be able to give you some idea based on other cases they've seen, but you never know, each case is unique. Hopefully they will be able to offer him something in the way of treatment to keep the cancer at bay.

You and he will be in my prayers.

 

[SueM in MN]

So sorry about your Dad.

As a nurse and a cancer survivor, I will say that there really is no way to predict a timeline on this - even if we were to know the complete picture. His medical team should be able to give you some idea based on other cases they've seen, but you never know, each case is unique. Hopefully they will be able to offer him something in the way of treatment to keep the cancer at bay.

You and he will be in my prayers.

I have to agree. It does sound very agressive, but each person (and each cancer) is different.
I worked with someone whose mom had terminal liver cancer and had been told she had less than a year left. When I stopped workling with the woman, 5 years later, her mom was still alive.
On the other hand, my dad had lymphoma and was in a remission. A few weeks after he was told he was doing well, he was out of remission and 3 months later he died.

Sending prayers for your dad and your whole family too.

 

[roseprincess]

So sorry to hear about your dad.
I will pray for him and your family.

Rosemarie