Question about Brittany Maynard and brain cancer.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

They said Brittany had a glioblastoma.

My sister died some years ago from an incurable astrocytoma. It's called "astro" because it's shaped like a star. She was a young adult. She had four operations.

Are these two types related, is one a subdivision of the other, or what?

Thank you, medical professionals.

[Beaverhausen]

1. There are many different kinds of brain cancer.

I'm not a medical professional but a friend of mine has the exact same kind that Brittany had - Glioblastoma Multiforme. My friend chose to do radiation and chemo, to buy herself a little time.

FUCK CANCER

[Initech]

2. I should ask my brother about that next time I talk to him.

My brother is a ER doctor and I'm sure he's seen more than his fair share of inoperable cancers. I would be interested to get his take on this issue.

[silverweb]

3. I found some info.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]It gives a good basic rundown. The pertinent part for this discussion is in the 4th bullet point under "Types of Brain Cancer":

The most common primary brain tumors are gliomas, meningiomas, pituitary adenomas, vestibular schwannomas, and primitive neuroectodermal tumors (medulloblastomas). The term glioma includes glioblastomas, astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, and ependymomas. (bolding mine)

Source: [font color="blue" face="Arial"]http://www.webmd.com/cancer/brain-cancer/brain-cancer[/font color="navy" face="Verdana"]

[pnwmom]

4. Glioblastoma has a worse prognosis. In her case, it wasn't responding

to any treatment and her prognosis was less than 6 months.

[Warpy]

5. Actually, they're the same animal

I've seen all sorts of experimental heroics attempted and none were successful, even when the tumor was caught early. That's because the cancer is extremely aggressive and rarely has clear margins, making surgery only a delaying strategy. Average survival without treatment is a little over four months (although I've seen as little as 3 weeks) and with full surgery, radiation and chemotherapy treatment a year or more but not two.

Here's the Wikipedia article about it, warning: medicalese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glioblastoma_multiforme

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. Thank you for the information.

She lasted 14 months after treatment, chemo and all that. It was hell watching her lose control of parts of her body one section at a time. Her death destroyed me and my parents. For a long time. It's been over 20 years now, and I can still get messed up over it.

She had chemo, surgery, a drainage shunt for CSF, and all that. She worked for the head of the pathology dept. of the largest cancer hospital in the world.

I found out what the most horrible sound I've heard was.

It is Cheyne-Stokes breathing. The autonomic system goes into a feedback loop of fast-shallow and fast-deep breathing before the respiratory center finally fails. Happens in the last two or three days near the end.

[Dorian Gray]

7. I am truly

sorry you had to watch her go through all this. And I'm sorry she suffered through it. How horrible for your family, especially her.

Cancer sucks and what it does to people makes the patient suffer and their family suffer. I think Brittany was very brave. I don't know what decision I would have made in her shoes (but I have a child who I would want to watch live as long as I could live), but I would like to have the choice she had.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. Thank you for your kind words.

Cancer sucks.

As far as my family of origin, my mother had breast cancer in the '70s, a Halsted radical mastectomy, full-blast chemo and radiation and survived another twenty-two years. She was 81 when she passed away and she was ready. It was from other problems. She had a permanent skin burn that gave her hell the rest of her life. The nurses, in an instance of medical bullshit, called it a "radiation reaction" like it was temporary & she'd get over it. Apparently it felt like a permanent serious sunburn.

Big sister got hospice care at home. Big sister got headaches and couldn't make decisions, like what kind of ice cream to have at the ice cream shop. She figured it was probably just sinus headaches, allergies, like everyone else in her family. She went to her ear nose and throat guy who ordered a CAT scan and they found a goose egg sized tumor just above her right ear. She lasted 14 months and was a beautiful young woman of 42. She was my best friend. She drag raced her car when the parents didn't know about it when she was young, did tuneups on my car, went to rock concerts with me, and we just ran around together, even with 7 years' age difference, and I miss her terribly.

We were sitting around talking at the funeral home during the visitation, and one of the doctors she worked with said that it was unreal to see this vibrant young woman, to have seen the CAT scan with the tumor, and to know that she would be dead before too long. I'm sure that was a very strange concept to have to accept. I never saw the CAT scan. My mother went into the doctor's office with my sister to see it, as she was only allowed to bring one person in, and later she said, "It's just as well that you didn't see it. It would have made you sick."

Then my parents had a horrible fight in probate court with her widower. He altered her will and got away with it.

My dad had AML, (leukemia) had hospice care, said he'd had a good life and just wanted palliative care. He was in his late Eighties.
Said he wasn't afraid of death. He and mom decided you die, that's it and there is no afterlife, and they were down with it. They were at peace.

Me, I'm the youngest and the only one left. I've had 3 breast biopsies but no trace of cancer anywhere. I have one grown child to carry on.



Cancer sucks.

I am glad that Brittany was able to live her life with courage and choose when she departed. That was a great gift that Oregon gave her in its wisdom.

[Dorian Gray]

12. You bring your family

members strength in adversity and make it so real. I am sorry you had to go through all those losses, but you are a testament to your love for them and their love for you.

[Skidmore]

9. I can attest to your assessment of

Cheyne-Stokes breathing as being a horrific sound. My mother died about twenty years ago from renal cancer which had invaded her organs, body cavity, and brain. We cared for her at home at the end with some wonderful assistance of hospice nurses. I can still clearly remember those last two days and the house being filled with the sound of her breathing.

Cancer is just a horrible disease. I have lost both parents and a brother to it. I have a brother who is currently being treated for cancer and I am a survivor of cancer.

[hrmjustin]

8. All I know iss that A GBM is the worse kind of brain cancer.

Took care of z friend that had it 2 months before he died.

[sorefeet]

10. My friend is in her fourth year

of glioblastoma. She took chemo and now is on a new drug that seems to be working. Do you people remember the guy on Oprah, who graduated medical school and discovered he had glioblastoma???????????? He immediately got a job at a lab and made a cure for his blastoma using his own DNA. My other friend has liver and kidney cancer. He is now in immunotherapy using his own DNA and the university say he will be fine. There are other options but most people can't afford or don't know about them or don't qualify and they can't fix everyone. So I think everyone should have the option to choose their own death. Could I do it?????????????????? Don't know now. But some day I will.