Treatment Plan Update (Continue Radiation, Start Chemo, Prepare to Pivot)

Mom had her sixth lung radiation treatment this morning, followed by an appointment with her medical oncologist Dr. Davidson, and then an IV fluid infusion to help with her dizziness.

So far, we know that Mom has Stage IV non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma with brain and bone metastases. With this type of cancer, treatment and prognosis are very much impacted by tumor pathology results. Mom has had two lymph node biopsies, and both times they were only able to get fluid rather than a core sample, so there is a possibility Mom might need another biopsy (we should know by next week). We probably will not have the pathology results back for a couple more weeks. Mom’s doctor explained today that if she wasn’t having any symptoms, we would wait to start treatment beyond radiation until we had pathology results back. However, Mom is having many symptoms (profound fatigue, cough, shortness of breath, dizziness), and her doctors want to start chemotherapy now; there is a possibility that we will pivot with the treatment plan once we have pathology results.

The current plan is that next week Mom will start chemotherapy. She will get a chemo infusion once every 3 weeks, chemo will target all the tumors in Mom’s body. If we get the pathology results back and it’s discovered that her cancer has a driver mutation or high PD-L1, we will likely pivot to targeted therapy and/or immunotherapy and possibly discontinue chemotherapy. She continues to undergo radiation to deal with the mass in her lung and we anticipate that Mom will also start targeted brain radiation soon to target the brain lesions (so far they have found 12). She is not going to have a port placed yet until we have a long-term treatment plan, as some therapies are given orally. 

The doctors have not given Mom a prognosis because it could vary by several years depending on whether this cancer has a driver mutation, and we don’t have that information back yet. We are learning to be patient and flexible.

We appreciate your prayers, meals, financial gifts, and encouraging words so much; thank you for loving and supporting us. Our family has spent a lot of time together this past week. We love Mom so much, and it’s heartbreaking to see her go through this. The photos are from when we tried to take a picture of Mom and us kids, but all ended up sobbing and then laughing at ourselves for ugly crying.