Chemo help, Stage 4 Lung Cancer

Pandre

Please help! is it the chemo spreading the cancer and killing my mother ?

My mom was diagosed with Stage 2 adenocarcinoma in September 2016 and has progressed to stage 4 in only 6 months.  she put off her surgery till Dec 2, 2016 of a 3.5 cm left lung mass that was found in September, they stopped the surgery since it had travelled to the lymph nodes.  

Her immediate first treatment course started with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiation for 5 weeks (carboplatinum and taxol)  as soon as she started this she developed a 5 cm brown spot lesion on her scalp which they thought could be skin cancer but was benign. anyone experience this from chemo ?

After her 5 week treatment plan she had developed shingles then her PET/CT scan showed it had metastasized to the bone having several bone lesions so they had scheduled her for a CT-guided bone biopsy which from there she has been in uncontrollable pain so they started her on a treatment plan of immunotherapy w pembrolizumab. 

She seems to be deteriorating quickly since the biopsy, not able to get out of bed at all, nausea, constant pain and her verbrates are becoming weaker and fracturing more every week having her in and out of hospitals.

 Last PET/CT scan April 2017 they found 2 lesions in her liver and want to stop the immunotherapy and do a treatment plan with Systematic Chemo, I have read nothing good about this at all. She has been placed on morphine and steroids to get her through the day and night the past week. I don't think she is controlling her pain and taking it on a schedule but waiting until the pain is so severe. 

She was admitted into hospital again this evening for pain, has not had a bowel movement for a week and has more fractures in her lumbar. I can't get her to eat or eat anything with nutritional value. 

I know they say "it's the cure that kills" but is it spreading it ? making her worse ? giving her more pain ? anyone know anything about systematic chemo and have any positive experiences with it ? 

does juicing and your diet play an important role at this stage ?

 

 

 

 

 

gin8201

I am so sorry to hear about

I am so sorry to hear about your mother. My husband was just diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma of the lungs yesterday. We are both devastated as I know you and your family are. I hope that some others on this board will comment here and give us both some hope. I wish the best for you and your mom!