Lung Cancer

[sherbear]

Hello I wanted to know if someone could tell me the life expectacy of stage 1 lung cancer my mother was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago with stage 1 nodule lung cancer she had radiation. There was two spots, they radiated the one that was growing. Well the one that wasn't started to grow after the other one shrank. Well she had radiation again, it shrunk the tumor, but six months later she has a new spot and can not have any more radiation. She also can not have surgery due to her emphesyma (sp). So now she has another spot and and will not have chemo So my question sorry so long, what do you think a life expectacy would be for someone with stage 1 again for the third time, and how does lung cancer progress do we have months or years? Any comments and advice are appreciated..

[hearrean]

Hello I wanted to know if someone could tell me the life expectacy of stage 1 lung cancer my mother was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago with stage 1 nodule lung cancer she had radiation. There was two spots, they radiated the one that was growing. Well the one that wasn't started to grow after the other one shrank. Well she had radiation again, it shrunk the tumor, but six months later she has a new spot and can not have any more radiation. She also can not have surgery due to her emphesyma (sp). So now she has another spot and and will not have chemo So my question sorry so long, what do you think a life expectacy would be for someone with stage 1 again for the third time, and how does lung cancer progress do we have months or years? Any comments and advice are appreciated..

I am certainly no expert on the subject, but I am someone who was recently diagnosed with Lung Cancer Stage IIIa. From everything I read, a Stage I patient is usually treatable (& many times curable) by surgery. This does depend upon any spreading, etc., but if it's a single nodule, then the ability to treat successfully is much higher. The extent of COPD your Mother has should be further evaluated however. Total lung function values are looked at as well as other criteria. How extensive the surgery would be would be determined upon the size of the tumor, but if it is small & hasn't spread, they would usually try & remove as little of the lung tissue as possible, perhaps no more than a single lobe or even less. They might then follow with chemo/radiation or perhaps not. You might even entertain another opinion if you're dealing with a Doc that insists upon not considering surgery because of COPD. Many of us did. I would certainly suggest looking into this further. Your Mother is , I will say, fortunate that her condition was caught while still Stage I.

Good luck,

Ken

[sherbear]

Thank you for your response.

[calegero]

Ken replied to this message and I wanted to ask him a question. Do you have any idea what the life expectancy would be for someone that has lung cancer that has already spread to the spine and liver?
I don't know what the stages are but this would have to be one of the highest. Chemo is not an option, I am just tryin to get an approximate estimate of life expectancy. Thx