› Forums › General Melanoma Community › gamma knife for more than 3 tumors?
- This topic has 15 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 10 months ago by
concernedaughter2011.
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- November 30, 2011 at 3:42 am
My mother has stage IV melanoma. She has 5 small lesions in her brain and a few other small ones in her lungs. She was diagnosed 8 months ago and did not really respond negatively or positively to chemo. Doctors have recommended WBR but she dies not want to do it. She was also told by docs that they cant perform gamma knife if there's more than 3 tumors. What are the options then?
My mother has stage IV melanoma. She has 5 small lesions in her brain and a few other small ones in her lungs. She was diagnosed 8 months ago and did not really respond negatively or positively to chemo. Doctors have recommended WBR but she dies not want to do it. She was also told by docs that they cant perform gamma knife if there's more than 3 tumors. What are the options then?
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- November 30, 2011 at 1:14 pm
I'm not sure but think that 5 is usually the limits at the same time that they do gamma, but would request a 2nd opinion. Possibly a combination of crainectomy and gamma? If not possible then they would be discussing WBR. Could they just do gamma or SRS for the largest or most dangerous area for 3 and see if they respond and then do the other 2? But, it would always be a good 2nd opinion in a different hospital that is known for dealing with cancer and radiation.
My local oncologist immediately jumped to doing WBR after the 1 met. Haven't been back to see her since then, she was looking at only what options were given in this area. I had already been given other options so when talking to her really opened my eyes on how others are not given options.
Linda
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- November 30, 2011 at 1:14 pm
I'm not sure but think that 5 is usually the limits at the same time that they do gamma, but would request a 2nd opinion. Possibly a combination of crainectomy and gamma? If not possible then they would be discussing WBR. Could they just do gamma or SRS for the largest or most dangerous area for 3 and see if they respond and then do the other 2? But, it would always be a good 2nd opinion in a different hospital that is known for dealing with cancer and radiation.
My local oncologist immediately jumped to doing WBR after the 1 met. Haven't been back to see her since then, she was looking at only what options were given in this area. I had already been given other options so when talking to her really opened my eyes on how others are not given options.
Linda
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- November 30, 2011 at 1:14 pm
I'm not sure but think that 5 is usually the limits at the same time that they do gamma, but would request a 2nd opinion. Possibly a combination of crainectomy and gamma? If not possible then they would be discussing WBR. Could they just do gamma or SRS for the largest or most dangerous area for 3 and see if they respond and then do the other 2? But, it would always be a good 2nd opinion in a different hospital that is known for dealing with cancer and radiation.
My local oncologist immediately jumped to doing WBR after the 1 met. Haven't been back to see her since then, she was looking at only what options were given in this area. I had already been given other options so when talking to her really opened my eyes on how others are not given options.
Linda
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- November 30, 2011 at 1:25 pm
I’m sorry to hear about your Mom.Every Dr will suggest WBR when there are more than 2 tumours, for fear that microscopic cells could grow. This of course is your mother’s decision.
If she has small lesions, she could likely get them gamma knifed. I have read that this is possible, but perhaps some places would do it and others may not. I just had 2 tumours gamma knifed and they also tried to talk me into it. In my personal opinion, I just didn’t want to put myself through it when I had a chance at gamma knife. Since your mom also has lung mets, she should either start doing ipi (yervoy) and get herself BRAF tested. Small lung mets would mean your mom has time for the ipi to possibly work (up to 3 months). I had 15 small mets all under 1cm (accept for 1) and just recently found out that they’ve shrunk and some disappeared on ipi. I also hope at even though I have brain mets, the ipi will work to keep them from growing for am long time.
There are options. Try and convince them to gamme knife, but I understand the need to do WBR too. Some people have had this done and then did ipi.
I wish your mom the best of luck. Keep strong and remain positive.
Lisa
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- November 30, 2011 at 1:25 pm
I’m sorry to hear about your Mom.Every Dr will suggest WBR when there are more than 2 tumours, for fear that microscopic cells could grow. This of course is your mother’s decision.
If she has small lesions, she could likely get them gamma knifed. I have read that this is possible, but perhaps some places would do it and others may not. I just had 2 tumours gamma knifed and they also tried to talk me into it. In my personal opinion, I just didn’t want to put myself through it when I had a chance at gamma knife. Since your mom also has lung mets, she should either start doing ipi (yervoy) and get herself BRAF tested. Small lung mets would mean your mom has time for the ipi to possibly work (up to 3 months). I had 15 small mets all under 1cm (accept for 1) and just recently found out that they’ve shrunk and some disappeared on ipi. I also hope at even though I have brain mets, the ipi will work to keep them from growing for am long time.
There are options. Try and convince them to gamme knife, but I understand the need to do WBR too. Some people have had this done and then did ipi.
I wish your mom the best of luck. Keep strong and remain positive.
Lisa
I -
- November 30, 2011 at 1:25 pm
I’m sorry to hear about your Mom.Every Dr will suggest WBR when there are more than 2 tumours, for fear that microscopic cells could grow. This of course is your mother’s decision.
If she has small lesions, she could likely get them gamma knifed. I have read that this is possible, but perhaps some places would do it and others may not. I just had 2 tumours gamma knifed and they also tried to talk me into it. In my personal opinion, I just didn’t want to put myself through it when I had a chance at gamma knife. Since your mom also has lung mets, she should either start doing ipi (yervoy) and get herself BRAF tested. Small lung mets would mean your mom has time for the ipi to possibly work (up to 3 months). I had 15 small mets all under 1cm (accept for 1) and just recently found out that they’ve shrunk and some disappeared on ipi. I also hope at even though I have brain mets, the ipi will work to keep them from growing for am long time.
There are options. Try and convince them to gamme knife, but I understand the need to do WBR too. Some people have had this done and then did ipi.
I wish your mom the best of luck. Keep strong and remain positive.
Lisa
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- December 1, 2011 at 11:53 am
It would be valuable if you could provide some more information about the size of the tumors, location etc.. Normally i do not think that the number itself is a problem, i know that they can perform a procedure to threat lots of tumors when their diameter is not bigger than 3 cm (it may be evenbigger in cases).. Are you going to a center where they provide gamma knife? If not it would be very important to seek another option from a neurosurgeon who actually performs gamma knife.
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- June 23, 2012 at 5:32 pm
Two weeks ago, my mom had a stroke. They found 7 brain mets. One had bled and that's what caused the stroke. This moved her from stage 3 to stage 4. She was in the hospital for 12 days for speech, physical, & occupational therapy. Yesterday she had gamma knife radiation for 6 of the brain mets. The 7th one will have gamma knife in one month after it has clotted. They will do a follow up PET and MRI in a month to check the success. I hope that you had successful treatment.
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- June 23, 2012 at 5:32 pm
Two weeks ago, my mom had a stroke. They found 7 brain mets. One had bled and that's what caused the stroke. This moved her from stage 3 to stage 4. She was in the hospital for 12 days for speech, physical, & occupational therapy. Yesterday she had gamma knife radiation for 6 of the brain mets. The 7th one will have gamma knife in one month after it has clotted. They will do a follow up PET and MRI in a month to check the success. I hope that you had successful treatment.
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- June 23, 2012 at 5:32 pm
Two weeks ago, my mom had a stroke. They found 7 brain mets. One had bled and that's what caused the stroke. This moved her from stage 3 to stage 4. She was in the hospital for 12 days for speech, physical, & occupational therapy. Yesterday she had gamma knife radiation for 6 of the brain mets. The 7th one will have gamma knife in one month after it has clotted. They will do a follow up PET and MRI in a month to check the success. I hope that you had successful treatment.
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- December 1, 2011 at 11:53 am
It would be valuable if you could provide some more information about the size of the tumors, location etc.. Normally i do not think that the number itself is a problem, i know that they can perform a procedure to threat lots of tumors when their diameter is not bigger than 3 cm (it may be evenbigger in cases).. Are you going to a center where they provide gamma knife? If not it would be very important to seek another option from a neurosurgeon who actually performs gamma knife.
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- December 1, 2011 at 11:53 am
It would be valuable if you could provide some more information about the size of the tumors, location etc.. Normally i do not think that the number itself is a problem, i know that they can perform a procedure to threat lots of tumors when their diameter is not bigger than 3 cm (it may be evenbigger in cases).. Are you going to a center where they provide gamma knife? If not it would be very important to seek another option from a neurosurgeon who actually performs gamma knife.
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