Malignant Melanoma in Lung

yorkie11
yorkie11 Member Posts: 4
edited March 2014 in Skin Cancer #1
My brother was just diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma in his lung. The only other things I know are that they found the source of the cancer (it was on top of his head) and that there are little spots on his brain. From my understanding, he will have radiation therapy to hopefully remove the spotting on his brain, but the main problem is the stuff on his lung. For that, he will have chemo. Just wondering if that will even be effective and if so, for how long. Basically I would like some type of timeframe of how much time he will have left and if it is possible for him to beat this. Personally, I don't see why they don't do surgery on the lung tumor before or after doing the radiation therapy but then again I'm not an oncologist. Just looking for any feedback and/or support. Thanks.

Comments

  • washoegal
    washoegal Member Posts: 45
    #2
    Melanoma in Lung
    Often times they do surgery on the lung after radiation to shrink the tumor. I believe it all depends where in the lung the tumor is. I am hoping you brother is with a melanoma specialist, if he is not please encourage him to get one immediately. There are many trials out there for Stage 4 , some are very promising. If you want to do more research, check out what is referred to as IPI, I can't get the full name but I suspect you'll get plenty of hits with that. It seems to be the most promising.

    For Mel, it is usually a different type of Bio-Chemo cocktail as Mel does not respond to traditional Chemo very well. It does sound like a fairly aggressive approach, and the problem is many trials are not open until you fail the traditional approach.

    Good luck to you and your brother. He can kick it, but it'll be a tough road.
  • yorkie11
    yorkie11 Member Posts: 4
    #3
    washoegal said:

    Melanoma in Lung
    Often times they do surgery on the lung after radiation to shrink the tumor. I believe it all depends where in the lung the tumor is. I am hoping you brother is with a melanoma specialist, if he is not please encourage him to get one immediately. There are many trials out there for Stage 4 , some are very promising. If you want to do more research, check out what is referred to as IPI, I can't get the full name but I suspect you'll get plenty of hits with that. It seems to be the most promising.

    For Mel, it is usually a different type of Bio-Chemo cocktail as Mel does not respond to traditional Chemo very well. It does sound like a fairly aggressive approach, and the problem is many trials are not open until you fail the traditional approach.

    Good luck to you and your brother. He can kick it, but it'll be a tough road.

    Treatment
    Thanks for your information. He saw a skin doctor who referred him to an oncologist. Not sure if they specialize in Mel but I will check. As for treatment, I'm pretty sure he is got two different types at his first chemo treatment. Once again, thank you for your insight.

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