Brain Mets and Ovarian Cancer

Ok, so I thought I would post some information about Ovarian Cancer that Mets directly to the brain with no stops in between, for future readers. I'll start with some stats and some background and then discuss the treatments that I have had and the treatment that remains, along with side effects.

First the background:

I've researched the percentage of this type of recurrence, NED in the torso and Mets to the brain and discovered that the percentage is anything from 2% to .04%. To put it in perspective, my neurosurgeon, Dr. Eisenberg has been a Board of Neurology Surgery certified surgeon since 1973 and has only seen 6 cases of ovarian mets to the brain his career. So don't panic, it's not very common!

Symptoms for me were primarily speech related, I couldn't find words to convey what I wanted to say. For an English major, this was very frustrating.

An MRI identified 3 lesions on my brain. One was on my left frontal lobe slightly over the midline, measuring 5.4 x4 cm. The other two were 1.1 cm and .05 cm respectively and lurked in my left parietal lobe near my brain stem.

Surgery removed the largest of the three, and with the exception of headaches, my recovery was swift, without incident, and I recovered my vocabulary.

Following surgery, the next step was whole brain radiation. This we elected to have at our local hospital since it would be daily (M-F). Side effects did include, Hair loss (fortunately I shaved my head early on, so it wasn't too traumatic. Hair loss happened about Day 12), I had extreme Exhaustion, Headache, and, finally, the Decadron I was on to prevent brain swelling caused my face to puff up, sleeplessness, and major munchies. When my hair began to fall out, my scalp got really itchy. I told the nurse and she gave me hydro-cortisone cream.

I made it through all fifteen days (m - f), and each treatment lasted no longer than 15 minutes. There is a mesh mask that they fit to your face, and they do bolt the mask (with you in it to the table) but unless you are SEVERELY claustrophobic, it's not an issue.

The next step in my treatment is Gamma Knife. We are hoping that the radiation eliminated at least one of the remaining lesions and shrunk the other significantly. Gamma Knife is pin point laser technolgy that floods a specific area in the brain from all angles to minimize radiation exposure/damage to brain tissue and eradicate ANY remaining cancer cells. This is scheduled for july 27th so I'll have to write about that, later in the month.

The good news, don't get hung up on stats you see on line. These are all out of date. Dr. Kwok, the Gamma Knife doc who will be doing the surgery with Dr. Eisenberg, told me that the chances of NOT having a recurrence in my brain is about 80 - 90%. Those are darn good odds in the world of oncology medicine! So, the prognosis is good!



Advice for you:

If your CA125 is going up and there is no evidence of cancer anywhere in your torso, go ahead and ask for a Head MRI. It can't hurt. Also, if you notice extreme headaches, dizziness, difficulty with words any cognitive or motor issues, please mention it to your oncologist and make him/her listen. Fortunately my husband is a former neuro nurse and he paid attention to my symptoms and contacted my oncologist with his concerns even after the possibility of brain mets had been dismissed as exceptionally unlikely. Remember, after everything possible has been proven wrong, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth. Even Brain Mets. But don't be scared...just find yourself an awesome Neurosurgeon and Radiation Oncologist!

Hugs and Health!

Leesa