Ovaian Brain Tumors

[Jo A]

I had surgery for stage 3 Ovarian cancer Dec.7,2005, followed by chemo. All went well, kept my hair, CA125 dropped to 5. Two weeks ago I had a followup, slightly enlarged lymph nodes but all was "perfect".

Last week I was rushed to the hospital, underwent tests & this week I began whole brain radiation therapy for 4 tumors in my brain. this will be followed with more chemo which I really don't know about yet since they want to take it one step at a time.

They said the largest one is in the left temperal lobe, effecting my language center & the others are on the  pathways that comunicate language. Too many in the wrong places for any other treatment.

I have no idea what to expect. Does anyone have any knowledge about this type of thing?

[Jatoo]

Dear Helen:

This was just posted by a friend of hers so I don't know
what chemo she took.

Thanks
Jatoo

[freshair]

Hi Jo,
I'm one of the women on this site where it went to the brain. I was diagnosed IIIC January 03, did the Carbo/Taxol, following year had eye troubles thinking I needed progressive lenses, then symptoms got out of hand and was diagnosed Nov. 04 with two brain tumors. I had surgery to remove one Nov. 04, then gamma knifed the other one later that month. Then throughout the next year the gamma knifed tumor was growing and I had that removed in Dec. 05. No whole brain radiation after that. My neurosurgeon did not recommend it but my onc/gyn did recommend it. Since Nov. 2004, I am lucky that no other tumors have been growing although I do have some flairs. The one that was gamma knifed initially showed no cancer in the pathology report.

There is another woman on this site that finished whole brain radiation a few months ago. She can tell you about all the side effects. Radiation or surgery there are such cognitive side effects.

So now I'm on chemo to take care of abdominal activity (lymph nodes) I believe it was already in my brain when I was diagnosed but of course your whole body is not checked when you're diagnosed. A mistake I feel in the medical field.

You are like me stage III and being diagnosed a year later with it in your brain. There is a theory also that Carboplatin could cause this with some women. It's kind of rare to get this dreaded disease but also rare that it is in the brain. Let's play lotto.

I am 51, live in Long Island. Was diagnosed at age 47.

Best wishes for your WBR treatments. Please keep us up to date with everything. This is a good forum with wonderful women and husbands. We have to be in a very calm state to handle all this. Good meditative, calming music helps with prayer. Lots of walks in the woods with "fresh air".

My prayers and thoughts are with you,
Helen


Jatoo: What treatments that woman has had. And she's very active too, Wow.

[Jatoo]

Dear Jo:

1. Here's to put your mind at ease and mine too because I thought my wife had one of the hardest struggles against OvCA until I read this post this week from a friend of a patient who just celebrated her six(6)year anniversary and I quote:

"Today is her six year survival day! She found out she was stage 2-B OvCA on Valentine's Day six years ago. Since then, she has pretty much non-stop treatment of some kind. She had had her initial surgery and diagnosis, then chemo, then colon resection surgery and more chemo and radiation, then novalis shaped beam radiation to liver tumors, then more chemo, then a liver resection surgery, then radiofrequency ablations (2) to her liver, then more chemo to her liver, lungs and kidney, then two brain tumors and stereotatic brain surgery, then two more brain tumors and whole brain radiation and more stereotatic brain surgery. (That was last Christmas 06) Now she is back on chemo (Taxol#3 and Avastin) to try to knock back some spread again. Her Ca 125 went down from almost 4000 a month ago, to 862."

"Gloria works full time as a school counselor and some hours in the evenings as a Licensed Therapist. She goes very early every day to leave Friday afternoons for chemo."

2. She defintely is an amazing inspiration. It was her use of Avastin that brought me to this story since I have been monitoring patients using Avastin. They do radiation to the brain since most chemo if not all cannot enter the brain "barrier" but I suspect Avastin does.

My prayers are with you and please pray for my wife. I hope this helps.

All the best,
Jatoo

[sk2006a]

yes - i believe there are two on this forum with your experience.  i'm sure they'll be along soon - although it may take longer since it's a weekend.

good luck.