hi my mum has been diagnosed with primary nsclc, and secondary tumour in her spine, and it has spread to her lymph glands. she has been taken to hospital and now has pneumonia, she is very weak, she is losing weight very quickly and has been on build up drinks for 4 weeks which are not helping. she has had a second dose of oral chemotherapy, no one seems to want to give us a prognosis, we want someone to just say how long we possibly may have left with mum
Hi, Thanks for writing in. Since your mother has been diagnosed as NSCLC with lymph nodes and secondary to the spine, this is stage 4 cancer. Unfortunately stage 4 NSCLC carries an extended survival of 2 years and eve n with most aggressive therapy, few patients outlive this period of survival.There are other problems like pneumonia, weakness, loss of appetite and the stress of chemotherapy which is affecting her general condition. Cancer chemotherapy must continue till the end with adequate care of pain relief measures. She should be given high protein liquid diets of her choice at regular intervals to help maintain her energy balance. During chemotherapy, there is a lot of destruction of the cancer cells and these circulate in the blood leading to further weakness. With expected response to chemotherapy and good support, her survival might be extended to 6 months to over a year. Please do not worry.