Living with Lung Cancer

At 80yrs old my mother, Pat was diagnosed with stage IV NSCLC, after developing a pleural effusion She had a thorcentesis done and had 3 effusions in a short period of time before they did a chest tube pleurodesis. She claimed she would rather give birth to 4 children again then ever have that procedure done again so it was a good thing that it took .She had no more trouble with effusions. Besides a tumor in her right lung she had a small spot on her liver. She was a non smoker.

The doctor listed her options and said without treatment she would be dead in 6 months. With treatment she might make it a year. Then he suggested that she consider no treatment as he said at her age it would be difficult. He did not know my mom as she was a young 80 and had no other heath issues. My mom told him she wasn’t going to just lay there and let the cancer win, she was going to fight and thus the battle began .

Her first line chemo was carboplatin and Taxol. It left her exhausted. She lost all of her hair, had a metalic taste in her mouth so would not eat much and developed neuropathy in her feet but she never had any nausea or really felt sick.

After 4 rounds and shrinkage on her CT they gave her a break and she became even more exhausted, short of breath and just felt weak. I noted she had a low grade fever and had to beg for tests for a urinary tract infection and pneumonia both came back positive. A CT showed the cancer in her lung had grown and she now had multiple liver nodules.She was started on antibiotics and Irressa by that night she said she did not feel as short of breath and by the very next morning she was walking down the hall without feeling short of breath, As the days passed it got better and better .The next month she was swithed to Tarceva that had just become available and within weeks she felt great and had alot of energy again and best of all no shortness of breath.

She did get an acne like rash and her finger tips split but that was a small price to pay for how she felt. Her Next CT showed big improvement in the lung mass and some of the liver mets were gone and others had shrunk in size.

Her hair began to grow in and she was back to a rather normal life. Eventually the Tarceva did away with the lung tumor and it never did come back but after 7 months the liver mets started to grow so the doctor decided no more Traceva it was back to chemo. She has two choices Taxotere or Alimta and she chose the Alimta. She dreaded loosing the great quality of life she had had while on the Tarceva. Turns out not much changed in her quality of life except a few days of fatigue starting about 48 hrs after her chemo was given. Her hair continued to grow. She coasted along for another 8 months with good CT results before we got the news that the liver mets were active again.

Chemo was switched to Taxotere and Gemzar this proved to be a brutal chemo for her and while it did not make her sick it caused major fatigue and after a few months she had no energy so sat and watched tv all day, but the CT scans came back with positive results so she continued onward.

At one point I asked about adding Avastin to her treatment and her doctor refused saying there was too big a risk of a bleed in someone her age. He ignored the fact that the risk should have been her decision as the chances of this combo working for alot longer was slim. Avastin may have been worth the risk but we will never know.

My moms blood counts were bad with this chemo and she had to give herself shots of Procrit and Neupogen. Then she developed a tooth infection and had to have the tooth pulled ( yes at her age she still had all her own teeth) This started a downward spiral and it got to the point where my mom decided this was not the quality of life she wanted so she opted to stop treatment and started hospice care.

The hospice doctor told her she could live for months as there was no active cancer in her lungs and the mets in the liver were not causing any signs of liver failure. She was not happy to hear this as she did not want to continue with the way she was living..no energy.

About 6 weeks later she got very short of breath which had not been an issue since the Tarceva did away with her lung tumor and she died later that evening at home with most of the family at her side. Her battle was 2.5 years. We think she may have died from a pulmonry embolism as the combo of chemo and inactivity makes one prone to them.

My mom fought a great battle and her doctor was always amazed at how well she did but we all know we owe alot of that to the Tarceva as because of it she did not suffer all the shortness of breath and other respiratory issues many do, yes Tarceva was her Godsend.