Last Thursday, my daughter met with a radiation oncologist, neurosurgeon, and her melanoma specialist at MDA. All three said her only option was a second round of WBRT. Her first round was 3 weeks in August of 2016. This time they're planning to do 2 weeks. Afterward, they will start her on Keytruda. They also said that gamma knife might be an option in the future, once the number of brain mets is a more manageable number.
The neurosurgeon said that one of the long-term effects of WBRT was memory loss, but that if she's experiencing that 1 or 2 years in the future, we should celebrate that she's still here…that was hard to hear. In spite of that, I truly am hopeful that she will overcome this most recent setback. What I'd like to know is what might we be looking at side-effect wise…is memory loss the worst thing she might experience? I'm not discounting how frustrating that would be for her, but as her mom, I just want her to live.
This is from her MRI
Findings: As noted on the recent prior comparison examination there are multiple hemorrhagic lesions seen within the brain parenchyma. The dominant lesion is seen in the LEFT occipital lobe measuring 32 mm with central necrosis and moderate surrounding vasogenic edema. There is a largely solid lesion seen within the RIGHT single gyrus measuring 19 mm. Minimal additional lesions are identified most of which are smaller in size. A 21 mm cyst seen lobe.
Impression: Rapid development of greater than 20 hemorrhagic intra-axial enhancing lesions associated with mild/moderate vasogenic edema. These are consistent with hemorrhagic metastases.
Any insight is appreciated.
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