Anaplastic Astrocytoma Grade111/ inoperable.. What works???

astauss

My mother in law was diagnosed 3 weeks ago with a brian tumor, 2 weeks ago was her biospy and 1 week ago we found out it's Anaplastic Astrocytoma grade 3 and it's inoperable. She 54 and a health nut! The tumor is affecting her memory, speach and equlibreum. We want her to have the best treatment possible and I was wondering what some of you have had sucess with. We've read that chemo doesn't really work on this type of tumor.. but rationation does. Have any of you found this true??? Also, we're looking into a naturalpath doctor, there's one in our area who's supose to be wonderful. Figured it can't hurt to fight this thing on all levels. Any help, ideas or personal stories would be wonderful.

Thanks!

momsworld

Hi there
I'm sorry that your family is going through this. My daughter has AA3 and I have talked and met with others who have the same. Even though the diagnosis is the same, the cancer responds differently in each person. My daughter had a complete resection of her tumor in March 2010, 35 radiation treatments, and was on Temodar. MRI done after radiation completed, and there was new tumor growth. The size of the growth indicated that it was growing during radiation. So, the radiation did not work for her. There is another child I know who had radiation and has been doing wonderful. Same with the chemo. My daughter took 2 oral chemos and IV Avastin and has been cancer free for 10 months now and a teenaged boy that I know had some chemo and he is not doing well. The chemo didn't work well for him. I think this is why it is so hard to find a cure for this because each cure would be individual to each person.

cushla69

Dear Astauss, i was
Dear Astauss, i was diagnosed Nov. 2010 with Anaplastic astrocytoma grade 3 and it is also inoperable. I am 42. I went through radiation and temodar(chemo pill) from dec 21, 2010 to feb, 3, 2011. Restarted temodar on March 3, 2011. I am still taking chemo pill but they have also started me on Chemo Iv on August1,2011. My oncologist said this was the best treatment regimen they have for me at this time for my diagnosis. They also said after my radiation, that I had all I am ever allowed to have and if I ever had radiation again, it could cause brain damage. I am doing rather well i guess, i do have sick days following chemo IV, and have lost all my long strawberry blond hair, that in itself has been hard for me. I have had a lot of memory loss and I forget everything. I have to write everything down. I misplace stuff all the time and thats aggervating as well. Lost my sunglasses the other day, they were on my hat on my head, lol. Guess we still gotta find some humor in some of this, right? This whole thing has changed my life so dramically. I was a school bus driver and of course I can't do that anymore, but it was the best job to me, i loved it so very much.Now I stay home, i can't stand to not be out there with the rest of the drivers, who are dear friends to me and can't stand staying home.

cushla69

momsworld said:

Hi there
I'm sorry that your family is going through this. My daughter has AA3 and I have talked and met with others who have the same. Even though the diagnosis is the same, the cancer responds differently in each person. My daughter had a complete resection of her tumor in March 2010, 35 radiation treatments, and was on Temodar. MRI done after radiation completed, and there was new tumor growth. The size of the growth indicated that it was growing during radiation. So, the radiation did not work for her. There is another child I know who had radiation and has been doing wonderful. Same with the chemo. My daughter took 2 oral chemos and IV Avastin and has been cancer free for 10 months now and a teenaged boy that I know had some chemo and he is not doing well. The chemo didn't work well for him. I think this is why it is so hard to find a cure for this because each cure would be individual to each person.

MOmsworld, I too have AA3. I
MOmsworld, I too have AA3. I had radiation and chemo pill (temodar) from dec21, 2010 to feb3,
2011. then restarted chemo pill March3, 2011. they done another MRI and instead of showing the tumor had shrunk, mine showed that it had enlarged. I also thought it would shrink it. Now I am still doing temodar and they also started me on Chemo Iv (2 different kinds) one is Avastin. I have another MRI coming up soon. My tumor is inoperable, so I'm just keeping my faith that they get rid of the cancer. They say I have had all the radiation I am allowed to have and if i ever got it again it could cause brain damage.I pray ure daughter will be fine and will continue to be cancer free. take care and God bless you all

Biggbuff

cushla69 said:

Dear Astauss, i was
Dear Astauss, i was diagnosed Nov. 2010 with Anaplastic astrocytoma grade 3 and it is also inoperable. I am 42. I went through radiation and temodar(chemo pill) from dec 21, 2010 to feb, 3, 2011. Restarted temodar on March 3, 2011. I am still taking chemo pill but they have also started me on Chemo Iv on August1,2011. My oncologist said this was the best treatment regimen they have for me at this time for my diagnosis. They also said after my radiation, that I had all I am ever allowed to have and if I ever had radiation again, it could cause brain damage. I am doing rather well i guess, i do have sick days following chemo IV, and have lost all my long strawberry blond hair, that in itself has been hard for me. I have had a lot of memory loss and I forget everything. I have to write everything down. I misplace stuff all the time and thats aggervating as well. Lost my sunglasses the other day, they were on my hat on my head, lol. Guess we still gotta find some humor in some of this, right? This whole thing has changed my life so dramically. I was a school bus driver and of course I can't do that anymore, but it was the best job to me, i loved it so very much.Now I stay home, i can't stand to not be out there with the rest of the drivers, who are dear friends to me and can't stand staying home.

sounds familiar

cushla, my wife has AA3 and similar situation age ect., she 11 months into this had 3 surgeries and a staph infection also from crainiotmy, she fights like you, i hooe you are well God Bless

 

tienchau198

Hi all, my mom has malignant tumor in thalamus!

My mom was diagnosed 1 month ago (malignant tumor in thalamus grade III). Her left body is weak, can hardly move and she will undergo biospy surgery next week. My mom's doctor said he would try to take the tumor out as much as possible and the next treatment may be radiation therapy + chemotherapy. He said he could take the whole tumor out but the failure rate is 60% and 60% failure rate is death (not vegtative state). Does anybody know that there are any patients recovering this sickness? Does anybody know about the median survival rate for this sickness? I'm from Vietnam and new with this, I come here to gather useful information for my mom's sickness. Right now I'm totally hopeless. I would treasure any information from y'all.