Please help me my mother

My mother was diagnozied for cancer 1 year back now the cancer is metastatized and she has 2-3 tumors in brain and she had radiation 1 month ago, now she is getting symptoms like shaking hands very often , not sleeping at night  we tried giving phenytion/eption but it cant stop her from getting it can anyone please explain about the issue

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  I need to first have some points regarding your mother's condition clarified,as this will help me answer your questions better.  First, you said that your mother's brain tumors are already metastases.  Where is the primary tumor? Second, you said she already underwent radiation treatment a month ago. I'm assuming that it was her brain which was irradiated.  My question is: was the treatment completed? If the radiotherapy was completed, did they do a repeat brain CAT scan? What were the results?

I'm asking about the primary tumor because this will give an idea of the propensity of that tumor to spread in the brain, and will also give us an idea of how fast it's going to grow.  I'm asking about the radiation treatment because the symptoms your mom is experiencing right now may be due to a recurrence or progression of the tumor, or to damage to the brain caused by the radiation itself.  

Aside from the phenytoin or other anti-seizure drugs, giving steroids to reduce the swelling in her brain may help.  If her present medications are not controlling her symptoms, you should tell her doctor as soon as possible about this situation, so that additional treatment can be given.