My Best friend was diagnosed with lung cancer NSC, over a year a go. It had metastasized to his brain and we all thought he had had a stroke. He went thru brain rad and began chemo for the lung tumor. He has had a couple of different kinds of chemo but it hasn't killed the tumor. He even had radiation on his lung. The docs discovered a tumor by his testes and later He developed golf ball sized tumor in his groin lymph, this past month he has now got one on his neck lymph and now there is one in his arm pit. He has lost a lot of weight over the past year and no longer gets chemo or radiation. I am trying to understand what is happening cuz this is lung cancer and it seems to be going every where. He still eats but not anything close to what he used to and is unsteady on his feet cuz he's so skinny. What is happening and is he taking a turn for the worst?
I'm sorry your friend is going thru this. And so glad you are there for him.
A cancer can be tested for determination of origin in the body - such as lung cancer. It can then metastasize - or move - to other parts of the body. In fact, it may show up first somewhere else and then testing proves it to be from some other part of the body. For example, my next door neighbor has ovarian cancer but it showed up first in her lung.
When it moves to various other parts of the body, the organs begin to shut down and eventually cause death. So, in his case, the lung cancer may cause some vital organ to shut down such as the brain or heart and he could then pass -from lung cancer though the organ that shut down was not the lungs. Hope this makes sense!
I keep wondering if the it is all the metastases that will cause him the most problems since they seem to be popping out all over his lymph system. His lung tumor is growing but it sure appears in the last 2 months these new lymph tumors keep popping up. Is this normal or has his cancer began to speed up?
Yes, it is speeding up as the spread to other parts of the body shows. Often it is the spread to some other organ that causes death and not the location of the original tumor.
Strange because I thought he would pass from tumor in the lung causing breathing problems but it seems that all the other tumors that came from that lung tumor are going to be the cause of my best friend's passing. It's just not what I thought lung cancer was.
My dear friend passed away 18 months after his original diagnosis. He went through whole brain radiation, chemotherapy and more radiation. Tumors came up in the lymph nodes in his groin, arm pit and went to the brain again. The bowels started having problems too and then there was internal bleeding coming out of the bowels.He had many transfusions. He did really well and could make sense almost up to 7 days before he passed. He was not in pain when he passed as the nurses at the hospice took wonderful care of him. He was so brave..I will miss him.
The following user gives a hug of support to Messenger24u: bubblegirl (12-08-2011)
