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Anaplastic Astrocytoma Grade 3. Without Surgery.

JessAndBen
JessAndBen CSN Member Posts: 1
in Brain Cancer #1

Hi all,

In Feb 2016 my husband (aged 25) was diagnosed with Anaplastic Astrocytoma Grade 3. An orange sized tumour is directly in the middle of his brain stem and surgery isn't an option, as advised by two different brain cancer specialists. 

He underwent 6 weeks of radiation which has followed with chemotherapy (tablet form) 5 days a month. The doctors say they will keep him on chemo for the rest of his life as long as the MRI scans keep showing no change. 

When it was first discovered his symptoms were really bad, He couldn't walk, talk properly, feed himself, he could barely stay awake for more than 2hours at a time, 9 months have now passed and he has come right with all his motor skills, walking, talking, showing, eating, the only real problem for him now apart from the extreme weight gain is he cannot control his eyelids and his eyes no longer look up or down, they can only look left and right. 

Our specialist has told me he doesn't have more than 2yrs and she's surprised he made it this far. 

Can anyone relate to his situation? Has anyone with the same condition, same circumstances lived longer? Desperately seeking something to hope for. 

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  • H0829
    H0829 CSN Member Posts: 4
    #2
    JessAndBen followup

    Is your husband still doing well?  My husband also diagnosed anaplastic astrocytoma stage 3 but we are already seeing recurrance 4.5 months post radiation.  Surgury also was not an option.  Did you do any other treatments outside of temozolomide?

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