What Should You Ask Your Doctor About Treatments
The American Cancer Society recommends that you ask questions like these:
- What treatment might be best for me?
- What are the possible benefits of getting it?
- How soon would I need to start treatment?
- Will I need to get surgery as part of my treatment? If so, what will it be like and who will do it?
- Will I need other treatments, too? If so, how might they benefit me?
- What side effects could my treatments cause? And what should I do if I get them?
- Is there a clinical trial that might be a good option for me?
- Can you review any vitamins or diet Iââ¬â¢m on to make sure it wonââ¬â¢t interfere with my cancer treatment?
Prostate Cancer And The Lymphatic System
The lymphatic system helps protect us from infection and disease. It also drains lymph fluid from the tissues of the body before returning it to the blood. The lymphatic system is made up of fine tubes called lymphatic vessels that connect to groups of lymph nodes throughout the body.
Lymph nodes are small and bean-shaped. They filter bacteria and disease from the lymph fluid. When you have an infection, lymph nodes often swell as they fight the infection.
If prostate cancer cells spread to the lymph nodes, they usually go to the nodes close to the prostate. You may have a scan to check if the cancer has spread to these nodes.
In early prostate cancer, the cells have not spread to the lymph nodes. Locally advanced prostate cancer may have spread to these nodes. In advanced prostate cancer, there are usually cancer cells in the lymph nodes close to the prostate and in lymph nodes further away.
Radiation Therapy For Metastatic Brain Tumors
Radiation therapy treats metastatic brain tumors by using X-rays and other forms of radiation to destroy cancer cells or prevent a tumor from growing. It is also called radiotherapy.
These painless treatments involve passing beams of radiation through the brain, which can treat cancers in areas that are difficult to reach through surgery. Procedures may include any one or a combination of the following:
- External beam radiation therapy delivers radiation from a machine and through the body to reach metastatic tumors.
- Whole-brain radiation targets the entire brain to hit multiple tumors or any metastatic disease that hides from an MRI scan.
- Stereotactic radiosurgery directs a high dose of radiation targeted to the specific shape of the tumor, sparing surrounding healthy tissue from unnecessary radiation exposure.
- Proton therapy uses protons to treat metastatic brain tumors. Like stereotactic radiosurgery, proton therapy minimizes harm to healthy tissue surrounding a tumor.
These procedures may be performed after surgery to prevent tumors from recurring at the surgical site and growing into other brain tissue.
Because radiation therapy has been so successful in treating brain metastases and because many live long lives after treatment studies are now looking at how to manage the long-term effects of treatment.
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Is It Time To Let A Dog With Cancer Go
Our canine companions are a member of our family, making a cancer diagnosis extremely devastating. Not only is it difficult to hear the words, but many owners struggle with understanding the process of their disease and when its actually time to let them go. In this article we will help you understand the diagnosis of cancer in dogs.
Can Prostate Cancer Spread
Medically Reviewed by: Dr. BautistaUpdated on: November 18, 2019
Like other cancers, prostate cancer can spread if the cancer cells grow out of control. At ITC, we treat all different types of cancer and know that patients often have a lot of questions surrounding their diagnosis.
We often are asked what is prostate cancer? Can prostate cancer spread? How is it diagnosed? And more. At Immunity Therapy Center, we know that each diagnosis is unique and every patient is different which is why we focus on a holistic approach to prostate cancer. And we believe that when patients have the knowledge, theyre more likely to take control of their health.
To give you the knowledge to prepare, lets take a closer look at prostate cancer, what symptoms to look for, and how it can spread.
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Metastatic Brain Cancer Treatment
It is important to know that metastatic brain tumors are often treatable, and can be well-controlled. Generally, the faster you start treatment, the better the chances of killing or controlling the disease.
The treatment options for brain metastases may include:
- Clinical trials
In many cases, surgery or radiation therapy can improve or entirely get rid of symptoms. Read more about brain tumor treatment.
What Happens When Cancer Spreads To The Brain
Cancer cells can break away from the primary tumor and travel to the brain, usually through the bloodstream. They commonly go to the part of the brain called the cerebral hemispheres or to the cerebellum, where they form a mass.
Some metastatic brain tumors appear many years after the primary cancer. Others metastasize so quickly that they are identified before the primary cancer.
When the cancer cells reach the brain and form a tumor, it may lead to a variety of symptoms that can be shared by nonmetastatic brain tumors as well.
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Prostate Metastasis That Has Gone Into Bones Spine And Brain
My dad is 63 years old and has terminal prostate cancer which has spread to the brain leptomeningeal carcinomatosis its called he went down hill the other day and was admitted to hospital very confused he had a water infection but they scanned his brain and found cancer had spread the doctor has now told us its a matter of weeks he has left but they have put my dad on 16mg of steroids and hes starting to be more like himself so now he thinks hes getting better hes now in a hospice it breaks my heart thinking my dad thinks theres still a chance when doctors have told us otherwise can steroids cure the brain cancer or not? X
Hi Kellie,
I am so sorry to hear about your dad. My dad is also 63 and he has advanced prostate cancer in his bones and lymph nodes. We just found this out a month ago. I am not sure how the steroids work in this situation, but I just wanted you to know you arent alone in dealing with this. If you need to chat I am here!
What Is Metastatic Prostate Cancer
If your prostate cancer spreads to other parts of your body, your doctor may tell you that it’s “metastatic” or that your cancer has “metastasized.”
Most often, prostate cancer spreads to the bones or lymph nodes. It’s also common for it to spread to the liver or lungs. It’s rare for it to move to other organs, such as the brain, but that can happen.
It’s still prostate cancer, even when it spreads. For example, metastatic prostate cancer in a bone in your hip is not bone cancer. It has the same prostate cancer cells the original tumor had.
Metastatic prostate cancer is an advanced form of cancer. There’s no cure, but you take steps to treat and control it. Most men with advanced prostate cancer live a normal life for many years.
The goals of treatment are to:
- Manage symptoms
- Slow the rate your cancer grows
- Shrink the tumor
Some cancers are called “locally advanced.” That means the cancer has spread from the prostate to nearby tissue. It’s not the same as metastatic cancer since it hasn’t spread to other parts of your body. Many locally advanced prostate cancers can be cured.
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Prostate Cancer That Spreads To The Brain
ByDavid Smidev | Submitted On March 05, 2010
Cancer of prostate develops in the prostate gland and typically develops slowly. Advanced prostate cancer could extend to the brain or other body parts. The brain is one of the most common sites of metastasis from solid tumors.
When symptoms of metastatic cancer take place, the type and frequency of the symptoms will rely on the size and location of the metastasis. For instance, cancer that extends to the bones is probable to lead to pain and can cause bone fractures. Cancer that extends to the brain can lead to various symptoms including headaches, seizures and unsteadiness. Shortness of breath might be a sign of lung involvement.
Prostate cancer typically causes no symptoms until it achieves an advanced stage. Sometimes, symptoms close to those of benign prostatic hyperplasia develop, including difficulty urinating and a necessity to urinate recurrently or urgently. However, these symptoms do not enlarge until after the cancer develops large enough to compress the urethra and partly block the flow of urine. Afterward, the cancer might lead to bloody urine or a sudden incapability to urinate.
Metastatic brain tumors are classified relying on the precise site of the tumor in the brain, kind of tissue involved, original site of the tumor, and other factors. Rarely, a tumor could extend to the brain, yet the original location or site of the tumor is unknown. This is named cancer of unknown primary origin.
Symptoms Of Brain Metastases
Symptoms of brain metastases depend on the location, size and number of growths in the brain, or the amount of swelling. Metastases can push on or cause swelling in specific areas causing specific symptoms. Not everyone with a brain metastasis will have symptoms but most do.
The most common symptoms are:
- Not being able to move parts of your body, like an arm or leg
- Changes in emotions or how a person acts
- Problems hearing, seeing, or swallowing
- Nausea or vomiting
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Symptoms That Happen When The Cancer Spreads
When bone metastases occur, there may be new symptoms, like weak bones, spinal cord compression, high blood calcium levels, and stiffness, or pain in the hips, thighs or back. These symptoms can cause extreme feelings of pain and discomfort, such as nerve damage and muscle weakness brought on by spinal cord compression, numbness in the arms, or legs and loss of bladder or bowel control. High levels of calcium can mean vomiting, dehydration, confusion, or abdominal discomfort.
If you experience these symptoms, its important to talk to your doctor about them. Natural remedies or holistic treatment for prostate cancer are options and offer a way to gain control of your health and thrive.
Strength Of The Study
The current case report is unique in many ways, based on the CT and MR images. These include the initial intraventricular hemorrhage, acute hydrocephalus, and a large exophytic hemorrhagic metastasis from the hypothalamus extended to the suprasellar cistern, with the morphology suggestive of a giant thrombotic aneurysm. In this case, the lesions location being adjacent to the hypothalamus, peripheral parenchymal edema, lack of subarachnoid hemorrhage, and lack of visible feeding artery were the helpful information to exclude a possible aneurysm. Lastly, the hypernatremia found in this case was likely due to the patients history of diabetes insipidus. To the best of knowledge, this is the first case of exophytic hypothalamic prostatic metastasis that mimicked a ruptured aneurysm.
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Can Prostate Cancer Spread To The Brain
As in other locations, prognosis in prostatic involvement by leukemia/lymphoma is dependent on the subtype.
The majority of cases are low grade, predominantly chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma . As such, the prognosis in these cases is generally favorable. In a large consecutive series with follow-up data, which showed predominantly low-grade leukemia/lymphoma, only one patient had died from disease at follow-up.
In contrast, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma , which is often primary, carries a considerably less favorable prognosis. In a large series of primary prostatic lymphomas to date, which notably included numerous high-grade secondary prostatic lymphomas in survival analysis, 5-year lymphoma-specific survival was only 33%.
References
Terris MK, Hausdorff J, Freiha FS. Hematolymphoid malignancies diagnosed at the time of radical prostatectomy. J Urol. 1997 Oct. 158:1457-9. .
Chu PG, Huang Q, Weiss LM. Incidental and concurrent malignant lymphomas discovered at the time of prostatectomy and prostate biopsy: a study of 29 cases. Am J Surg Pathol. 2005 May. 29:693-9. .
Warrick JI, Owens SR, Tomlins SA. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the prostate. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2014 Oct. 138 :1286-9. . .
Gajendra S, Sharma R, Sahoo MK. Triple cancer: chronic lymphocytic leukemia with bladder and prostate carcinoma. Malays J Pathol. 2015 Aug. 37 :159-63. . .
The Genetic Landscape Of Pcbm
Across the 168 samples, we detected an average of 4.43 coding alterations/Mb, including SNVs and indels . We detected an average of 2.98 SNVs/Mb , 0.49 deletions/Mb and 0.15 insertions/Mb . Significantly more SNVs, insertions and deletions, were detected in PCBM compared to the matched primaries .
We found significantly higher levels of SNVs, insertions and deletions in the primary samples of PCBM cohort compared to TCGA . As the primary PCa from PCBM cohort were mainly high grade , we performed the same comparison using the high grade TCGA samples and found similar enrichment for all alteration types in the PCa of PCBM cohort . Comparing coding alterations in PCBM against the CRPC500 showed a significant enrichment for somatic alterations compared to non-brain metastases . These differences persisted after two analyses examining the effect of different sequencing depths across cohorts, first by applying more stringent alternate allele read thresholds , and secondly by simulating the effects of downsampling our sequencing data . We also observed the same enrichments when making these comparisons using only the cases for which we had matched normal tissue . This confirmed that the differences in detected mutations are not as a result of different sequencing depths between cohorts, or the inclusion of samples without a matched normal.
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Managing Bone Pain And Weakness
Symptoms like nausea, hot flashes, and pain can usually be relieved with medication. Some people find that complimentary treatments like acupuncture or massage help manage side effects.
Your doctor may also recommend orthopedic surgery to stabilize your bones, relieve pain, and help prevent bone fractures.
Palliative Care At Johns Hopkins
Palliative care is specialized medical care that helps patients facing serious illnesses and their families by adding an extra layer of support.
Palliative care teams can help with the symptoms and the stress of living with a serious illness, including controlling pain, providing support for the mental and emotional effects of an illness, and managing other symptoms.
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What Are The Differences Between A Metastatic Brain Tumor And A Primary Brain Tumor
There are several differences between a metastatic or secondary brain tumor and a primary brain tumor. Some differences are:
- A primary brain cancer is a tumor that develops in your brain. A metastatic or secondary brain tumor happens when cancer spreads to your brain from another area of your body.
- A metastatic brain tumor is malignant, and most primary brain tumors are benign. However, benign brain tumors can affect how your brain functions if they grow large enough to press on nearby nerves, blood vessels and brain tissue.
- Metastatic brain tumors are more common than primary brain tumors.
Survival Analysis And Outcomes
The median follow-up time was 27 months. All patients died due to the disease when the survival analysis was performed. The median OS was 19 months. The median time to diagnosis of brain metastasis was 24 months and the median time of survival from brain metastasis survival was 4.5 months. The median time of palliation of symptoms was 3.5 months.
Survival rates of the patients with brain metastasis
At the time of diagnosis of brain metastasis, all patients had concurrent distant metastasis. Patients had concurrent bone metastasis , concurrent distant lymph node metastasis , concurrent lung metastasis , concurrent liver metastasis , concurrent adrenal gland metastasis . Otherwise, 8 extracranial disease continued to worsen in 8 patients, led a stable course in 2 patients at the time of diagnosis of brain metastasis.
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Solitary Brain Metastasis In Low
Sonha Nguyen1,2*, Sameer Shah2, Neil Dudheker3 and Vishal Ranpura4
1Department of Medicine, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
2University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
3University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
4Department of Hematology/Oncology, Kaiser Permanente, Riverside, CA, USA
Brain Metastasis From Prostate Small Cell Carcinoma: Not To Be Neglected
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2014
- Corrie E. Erasmus
- Affiliation:Department of Neurosurgery, Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital, Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDepartment of Neurology, Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Wim I.M. Verhagen
- Department of Pathology, Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Erik J. van Lindert
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Immunotherapy For Metastatic Brain Tumors
Cancer immunotherapy is a fast-growing field of research that seeks to develop drugs, vaccines and other therapies that trigger the immune systems natural abilities to fight cancer. Many immunotherapy drugs for metastatic brain tumors act as checkpoint inhibitors. Normally, tumor cells can evade attack by activating certain proteins that disarm your immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors prevent tumor cells from exploiting this process.
Immunotherapy drugs to treat metastatic brain tumors include:
What Are The Chances Of Getting Metastatic Prostate Cancer
About 50% of men diagnosed with local prostate cancer will get metastatic cancer during their lifetime. Finding cancer early and treating it can lower that rate.
A small percentage of men aren’t diagnosed with prostate cancer until it has become metastatic. Doctors can find out if it’s metastatic cancer when they take a small sample of the tissue and study the cells.
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