A dear friend of mine was dx with stage 3B IBC in March 07. After a year of chemo, surgery and radiation, she felt great and thought the cancer was gone. At her 3 month check-up in July, her Dr. found 3 brain lesions–one on her brainstem, which is unoperable. She underwent surgery but the tumors were not able to be completely removed. She started aggressive whole brain radiation for 2 weeks and is now just “waiting” to see what will happen next. She is going monthly to her Dr. to get bloodwork and MRI’s done–with IBC being so aggressive and her now being a stage 4, what is likely her prognosis?
I don’t know what her prognosis is, but I had very aggressive stage 4 IBC in 2006 (which completely disappeared after treatment with taxotere) and then developed 3 inoperable brain tumors in February this year. After steroids and brain radiation, the tumors seem to be under control. I’m now on 1mg of steroids a day for the remaining oedema (swelling) caused by what’s left of the tumors. I also have herceptin every 3 weeks and oral capcitabine (Xeloda) which is controling the IBC which returned at the beginning of the summer.
Things looked pretty desperate in February, and the doctors were not sure that I would make it out of hospital, but I have responded very well to treatment and am now feeling a lot fitter. I’m having another set of brain & body scans on Friday, but don’t expect to discover anything nasty as my tumor markers are back within the normal range.
I’m officially ‘terminal’, but there’s no knowing how long any of us have to live, so I’m just getting on with enjoying life.
Every case of cancer is different. When I first discovered that I had IBC, the web site I was looking at gave an estimated life span of 6 months, but I’ve survived 2yrs 6months so far, and I’m going strong.
It sounds like the doctors are keeping an eye on your friend so that they can treat anything that turns up, so she just needs to make sure that she reports anything new to them so that they can deal with it.
I do hope that your friend is bearing up well. It’s a lot to cope with, but having supportive family & friends (like you!) really helps enormously.
Love, Lynn