Need some info

[Memawof5]

I was recently diagnosed with brain cancer as a secondary to possible lung or liver cancer. I had a liver biospsy and broncoscopy. Neither one of the showed a defined cancer cell. Today they did an adrenal gland biospy and now i wait. I have already started radiation on the brain but I guess untill the come up with what type cancer cell is growing I can not have any chemo. I know that this is bad cancer and because it has hit the brain I may be doomed but all of my doctors seem to think that because they can not locate the cell we may have saved me

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  I agree with your doctors that your brain tumors are only metastatic lesions and must have come from somewhere else.  Since your doctors said that the tumor is adenocarcinoma, and since you have tumors in the lung, liver, and adrenal gland, then the right lung is the most likely source of the cancer.  Lung cancer has a propensity for spreading to either the liver, adrenals, bone and brain, and it seems that the tumors found in your liver and adrenals are metastatic lesions as well.  Unfortunately, lung cancer is one of the cancers with a propensity for spreading in a short period of time.

Please feel free to update us on any additional developments.

[Memawof5]

The Doctors were quite suprized as I had had scans done on Abdomen, chest, for a surgery i was having in September 07. They saw nothing so they say. I have had problems with my eyes for about a year now. They could not find out what was wrong but nobody did a MRI untill Feb of 08. They saw the 2 tumors on the brain and said it was not the primary cancer. There was a small tumor on the helix of the right lung, a small tumor on the liver and the tumor on the adrenal gland. What they are saying is it is adrenocarcinoma? I do not understand how all of this developed so quickly.  

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  I'm just wondering: how did your doctors decide that your brain cancer is secondary to possible lung or liver cancer? Were discrete tumors seen in these organs, as well as the adrenal gland? Primary liver cancer or primary adrenal cancer usually doesn't metastasize to the brain, so I doubt that the cancer originated from those organs.  It could have come from the lungs, but was a lung mass detected on CT,MRI or bronchoscopy in the first place?  Were other organs investigated as possible cancer sources?  Since you're female, it might be good to have the doctors examine your breasts as cancer from this organ can go to the brain.  The colon and ovaries likewise should be investigated.