does anyone have lung cancer that might be comming from somewhere else?????

SamanthaBrophy
SamanthaBrophy Member Posts: 24
edited May 2011 in Lung Cancer #1
My mother in law has lung cancer they say she has 5cm mass in her right lung and just small amounts in her left, but the doctor seems to think the cancer bits in the left lung may be comming from a different organ. like the liver or the brain. she hasto go for more tests biopsy appointment not here yet. im just wondering if anyone has lung cancer that spread from a different area other than the breasts or if they had ther doctor suspect the same thing. any words will help. Im trying to find out as much as i can. were all very scared and if anyone has anything to say that may help we very much appreciate it.
Samantha

Comments

  • Ex_Rock_n_Roller
    Ex_Rock_n_Roller Member Posts: 281 Member
    Cancer from elsewhere
    Yes, my cousin has had a very rare form of abdominal cancer for some time, and it presented in her lungs last year. I don't know much beyond that, except that I believe the short-term prognosis is not as bad as it would have been with primary lung cancer.
  • Ex_Rock_n_Roller
    Ex_Rock_n_Roller Member Posts: 281 Member
    Cancer from elsewhere
    [double post]
  • SamanthaBrophy
    SamanthaBrophy Member Posts: 24

    Cancer from elsewhere
    Yes, my cousin has had a very rare form of abdominal cancer for some time, and it presented in her lungs last year. I don't know much beyond that, except that I believe the short-term prognosis is not as bad as it would have been with primary lung cancer.

    thanks
    this would actually make sence, because the way they found the lung cancer was chest pain she said it felt like inflamation sore muscles. anyway if you find out more i would love to hear about it. thanks so much.
  • soccerfreaks
    soccerfreaks Member Posts: 2,788 Member
    Another perspective
    My lung cancer was inititally suspected to be, in fact diagnosed to be, metastasis (moving to the lung from another area) from a previous head/neck cancer situation.

    As it turned out, it was the same kind of cancer (squamous cell carcinoma), but was still small enough when they did the biopsy that they could not establish whether it was mets or new.

    Contrary to what Ex_Rock indicates, in my case had the biopsy established this as metastasis they would have done nothing more with respect to surgery, and simply would have zipped me up and sent me home to prepare for palliative care, chemotherapy.

    Because they were not sure, they did a lobectomy and frankly, I went into that biopsy HOPING to wake up with one less lobe than I went in with.

    All of which is to say, in my extremely limited experience, it is typically better if the lung cancer is a primary. In your mom-in-law's case, there is the additional problem that the cancer appears to have spread to both lungs, which may preclude surgery altogether.

    Still, I know quite a few folks on this site who are surviving via chemotherapy, especially, for many years now, some of them even NED (No Evidence of Disease). Even those still in treatment, continuing treatment, seem enthused, many of them, by promising new therapies, promising new technologies.

    I wish mom-in-law and her family, friends, and loved ones the very best moving forward.

    Take care,

    Joe
  • joeline12
    joeline12 Member Posts: 53

    Another perspective
    My lung cancer was inititally suspected to be, in fact diagnosed to be, metastasis (moving to the lung from another area) from a previous head/neck cancer situation.

    As it turned out, it was the same kind of cancer (squamous cell carcinoma), but was still small enough when they did the biopsy that they could not establish whether it was mets or new.

    Contrary to what Ex_Rock indicates, in my case had the biopsy established this as metastasis they would have done nothing more with respect to surgery, and simply would have zipped me up and sent me home to prepare for palliative care, chemotherapy.

    Because they were not sure, they did a lobectomy and frankly, I went into that biopsy HOPING to wake up with one less lobe than I went in with.

    All of which is to say, in my extremely limited experience, it is typically better if the lung cancer is a primary. In your mom-in-law's case, there is the additional problem that the cancer appears to have spread to both lungs, which may preclude surgery altogether.

    Still, I know quite a few folks on this site who are surviving via chemotherapy, especially, for many years now, some of them even NED (No Evidence of Disease). Even those still in treatment, continuing treatment, seem enthused, many of them, by promising new therapies, promising new technologies.

    I wish mom-in-law and her family, friends, and loved ones the very best moving forward.

    Take care,

    Joe

    SAME
    soccerfreaks

    what u have wrote is exactly the same as what my father is facing. after biopsy, the doc cannot cfm is a new cancer or met from the previous cancer which is also head/neck situation (squamous cell carcinoma, so after discussion they conculded its a new cancer. However after the 1st treatment for head/neck cancer, my dad doesn't want to go thru another round of treatment for lung.. he scare, he worry... what should i do then??
  • Ex_Rock_n_Roller
    Ex_Rock_n_Roller Member Posts: 281 Member

    Another perspective
    My lung cancer was inititally suspected to be, in fact diagnosed to be, metastasis (moving to the lung from another area) from a previous head/neck cancer situation.

    As it turned out, it was the same kind of cancer (squamous cell carcinoma), but was still small enough when they did the biopsy that they could not establish whether it was mets or new.

    Contrary to what Ex_Rock indicates, in my case had the biopsy established this as metastasis they would have done nothing more with respect to surgery, and simply would have zipped me up and sent me home to prepare for palliative care, chemotherapy.

    Because they were not sure, they did a lobectomy and frankly, I went into that biopsy HOPING to wake up with one less lobe than I went in with.

    All of which is to say, in my extremely limited experience, it is typically better if the lung cancer is a primary. In your mom-in-law's case, there is the additional problem that the cancer appears to have spread to both lungs, which may preclude surgery altogether.

    Still, I know quite a few folks on this site who are surviving via chemotherapy, especially, for many years now, some of them even NED (No Evidence of Disease). Even those still in treatment, continuing treatment, seem enthused, many of them, by promising new therapies, promising new technologies.

    I wish mom-in-law and her family, friends, and loved ones the very best moving forward.

    Take care,

    Joe

    Another other perspective
    " in my extremely limited experience, it is typically better if the lung cancer is a primary. "

    I'll yield to your experience on that, Joe. The only reason I have an inkling of the opposite in my cousin's case is because while her brand doesn't respond all that well to much of anything, it appears to be an extremely slow-growing kind of a thing. Probably not indicative of anything beyond her case, which unfortunately is probably the rule across the board.
  • SamanthaBrophy
    SamanthaBrophy Member Posts: 24

    Another perspective
    My lung cancer was inititally suspected to be, in fact diagnosed to be, metastasis (moving to the lung from another area) from a previous head/neck cancer situation.

    As it turned out, it was the same kind of cancer (squamous cell carcinoma), but was still small enough when they did the biopsy that they could not establish whether it was mets or new.

    Contrary to what Ex_Rock indicates, in my case had the biopsy established this as metastasis they would have done nothing more with respect to surgery, and simply would have zipped me up and sent me home to prepare for palliative care, chemotherapy.

    Because they were not sure, they did a lobectomy and frankly, I went into that biopsy HOPING to wake up with one less lobe than I went in with.

    All of which is to say, in my extremely limited experience, it is typically better if the lung cancer is a primary. In your mom-in-law's case, there is the additional problem that the cancer appears to have spread to both lungs, which may preclude surgery altogether.

    Still, I know quite a few folks on this site who are surviving via chemotherapy, especially, for many years now, some of them even NED (No Evidence of Disease). Even those still in treatment, continuing treatment, seem enthused, many of them, by promising new therapies, promising new technologies.

    I wish mom-in-law and her family, friends, and loved ones the very best moving forward.

    Take care,

    Joe

    Im so new at all this
    i dont understand any of it you know. shes only 46. Im just wondering when you say its better if its primary are you saying tis better if its just lung cancer and not liver spread to lung or something. Im not sure if they have really talked about surgery, as far as i know she is going to do chemo and radiation and see where we go. but they havent done the biopsy yet, and shes going for a head exam soon to find out if it did possibly come from the brain or something. also she has a polyp in her nose and she is not sure if it is related but she has had it for years years. does anyone know????
  • SamanthaBrophy
    SamanthaBrophy Member Posts: 24

    Another perspective
    My lung cancer was inititally suspected to be, in fact diagnosed to be, metastasis (moving to the lung from another area) from a previous head/neck cancer situation.

    As it turned out, it was the same kind of cancer (squamous cell carcinoma), but was still small enough when they did the biopsy that they could not establish whether it was mets or new.

    Contrary to what Ex_Rock indicates, in my case had the biopsy established this as metastasis they would have done nothing more with respect to surgery, and simply would have zipped me up and sent me home to prepare for palliative care, chemotherapy.

    Because they were not sure, they did a lobectomy and frankly, I went into that biopsy HOPING to wake up with one less lobe than I went in with.

    All of which is to say, in my extremely limited experience, it is typically better if the lung cancer is a primary. In your mom-in-law's case, there is the additional problem that the cancer appears to have spread to both lungs, which may preclude surgery altogether.

    Still, I know quite a few folks on this site who are surviving via chemotherapy, especially, for many years now, some of them even NED (No Evidence of Disease). Even those still in treatment, continuing treatment, seem enthused, many of them, by promising new therapies, promising new technologies.

    I wish mom-in-law and her family, friends, and loved ones the very best moving forward.

    Take care,

    Joe

    Im so new at all this
    i dont understand any of it you know. shes only 46. Im just wondering when you say its better if its primary are you saying tis better if its just lung cancer and not liver spread to lung or something. Im not sure if they have really talked about surgery, as far as i know she is going to do chemo and radiation and see where we go. but they havent done the biopsy yet, and shes going for a head exam soon to find out if it did possibly come from the brain or something. also she has a polyp in her nose and she is not sure if it is related but she has had it for years years. does anyone know????
  • soccerfreaks
    soccerfreaks Member Posts: 2,788 Member

    Im so new at all this
    i dont understand any of it you know. shes only 46. Im just wondering when you say its better if its primary are you saying tis better if its just lung cancer and not liver spread to lung or something. Im not sure if they have really talked about surgery, as far as i know she is going to do chemo and radiation and see where we go. but they havent done the biopsy yet, and shes going for a head exam soon to find out if it did possibly come from the brain or something. also she has a polyp in her nose and she is not sure if it is related but she has had it for years years. does anyone know????

    Hope and Humor!
    It's not so much what YOU should do, joeline, as what dad needs to consider, based on his age, physique, previous experience, and what they would plan to do this go-round.

    It can be a tough call, to be sure, but it is really one he needs to make, must make, in fact. You can contribute to his decision-making process, of course, with good information for him and, always, positive support.

    (With respect to the brain MRI, that is not unusual, at least among me and my lung cancer friends. Before they even consider surgery in the lung, they want to be assured that it has not spread to the brain, a common travel route for some types of lung cancer. In my case, they said they found nothing, thus confirming one of my wife's frequent suggestions about the contents therein :).)

    Hope and Humor!

    Take care,

    Joe
    http://csn.cancer.org/user/72176
  • joeline12
    joeline12 Member Posts: 53

    Hope and Humor!
    It's not so much what YOU should do, joeline, as what dad needs to consider, based on his age, physique, previous experience, and what they would plan to do this go-round.

    It can be a tough call, to be sure, but it is really one he needs to make, must make, in fact. You can contribute to his decision-making process, of course, with good information for him and, always, positive support.

    (With respect to the brain MRI, that is not unusual, at least among me and my lung cancer friends. Before they even consider surgery in the lung, they want to be assured that it has not spread to the brain, a common travel route for some types of lung cancer. In my case, they said they found nothing, thus confirming one of my wife's frequent suggestions about the contents therein :).)

    Hope and Humor!

    Take care,

    Joe
    http://csn.cancer.org/user/72176

    selfish thought
    sometime when i am alone, i alway think why wan to go thru the treatment and suffer like HELL... if after treatment its workable then good news.. what IF it not helping at all??? why not just leave it and enjoy life till death... sorry guy!! i guess i am too emotional
  • dearfoam
    dearfoam Member Posts: 82
    my dad's lung tumors are melanoma mets
    took a while to figure out, but it traveled from moles to lungs and brain.
  • cabbott
    cabbott Member Posts: 1,039 Member
    Mets to the lung
    Doctors really have to try hard to find out where the cancer cells originate so they know what kind of chemotherapy to use. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. In 2006, an xray showed a spot on the lung. Most doctors would have immediately begun treating me for breast cancer that had moved to the lung. There are many chemotherapies that are effective on stage 4 breast cancer, which is another name for cancer which has set up camp away from the primary spot. Those meds don't work however on lung cancer, only on breast cancer that has set up camp in the lung. Fortunately for me, my doctor urged me to get a biopsy of the spot. The surgeon who did that surgery backed out when the FIRST look at the cancer made it seem to be a resurection of my original breast cancer. AFTER the pathologist did some tests on the tumor, however, it turned out to be lung cancer, stage 1. The treatment for that is more surgery. Ouch! So far, that surgery has worked. If the doctors had put me through 9 months of breast cancer chemo, the spot would have grown and who knows, I might be pushing up daisies. Cancer is an umbrella term that covers a lot of kinds of crazy cells. Different treatments work on different crazy cells. I wouldn't worry at all about whether it is better to have one kind over another. Just get to the best docs you can travel to and find out what you are dealing with. Then you will know what can or cannot be done for it. And even if it is a "bad" kind of cancer where the probabilities of success are not so good, remember that stats are numerical descriptions of what has happened to groups of others in the past. They don't describe individuals. They can't describe the present or your future.Even if they could,as one survivor put it in a post I read a long time ago, if only 1 out of 100 people survive a particular cancer for more than 5 years, whose to say you aren't the 1! Good luck!
  • SamanthaBrophy
    SamanthaBrophy Member Posts: 24
    cabbott said:

    Mets to the lung
    Doctors really have to try hard to find out where the cancer cells originate so they know what kind of chemotherapy to use. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. In 2006, an xray showed a spot on the lung. Most doctors would have immediately begun treating me for breast cancer that had moved to the lung. There are many chemotherapies that are effective on stage 4 breast cancer, which is another name for cancer which has set up camp away from the primary spot. Those meds don't work however on lung cancer, only on breast cancer that has set up camp in the lung. Fortunately for me, my doctor urged me to get a biopsy of the spot. The surgeon who did that surgery backed out when the FIRST look at the cancer made it seem to be a resurection of my original breast cancer. AFTER the pathologist did some tests on the tumor, however, it turned out to be lung cancer, stage 1. The treatment for that is more surgery. Ouch! So far, that surgery has worked. If the doctors had put me through 9 months of breast cancer chemo, the spot would have grown and who knows, I might be pushing up daisies. Cancer is an umbrella term that covers a lot of kinds of crazy cells. Different treatments work on different crazy cells. I wouldn't worry at all about whether it is better to have one kind over another. Just get to the best docs you can travel to and find out what you are dealing with. Then you will know what can or cannot be done for it. And even if it is a "bad" kind of cancer where the probabilities of success are not so good, remember that stats are numerical descriptions of what has happened to groups of others in the past. They don't describe individuals. They can't describe the present or your future.Even if they could,as one survivor put it in a post I read a long time ago, if only 1 out of 100 people survive a particular cancer for more than 5 years, whose to say you aren't the 1! Good luck!

    thanks
    the reason i actually mentioned breast cancer is because she actually had found a breast lump about a year ago, but when she went for test they said it was not cancerous. but ive looked around not to to much but ive only really seen people say there breast cancer spread to there lung/s. so she had breast cancer rulled out. Im just wondering if anyone has had or heard of cancer spreading from the liver to the lungs or the brain to the lungs or actually the nose to the lungs. she has had sinus issues for a long time and undiagnosed polyp in her nose. Im just trying to find out as much as possible. thanks so much for your reply CABBOTT i truely appreciate the help.

    Sincerely Samantha
  • SamanthaBrophy
    SamanthaBrophy Member Posts: 24
    dearfoam said:

    my dad's lung tumors are melanoma mets
    took a while to figure out, but it traveled from moles to lungs and brain.

    DEARFOAM
    I'm interested in the possobility of travelling from a mole or moles. She actually did have a mole removed from her face about 3 years ago. any other information you have on this i would love to hear it. and also i was wondering if the infected mole/s were removed befor the cancer spread.
    thanks so much

    Sincerely: Samantha