Q&A: How often does lung cancer spread to the brain?

Question by what?: How often does lung cancer spread to the brain?
My grandmother is 80, diagnosed with small call luncg cancer. She will have a brain scan this week to determine is it has spread. How often does lung cancer spread tot he brain? How long does it generally take to spread?

Best answer:

Answer by banzai
First, let me say I am very sorry to hear about this, and I wish you and your grandmother the best. I’ll answer your question from a strictly medical standpoint, based on what small cell carcinoma of the lung is, and what it does, what to expect, etc.

Cancer of the lungs can come in several forms, to name a few adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and the one you are dealing with now, small cell carcinoma. The distinctions between the cancers are made to differentiate the cell types in the lungs which are involved, the progression the disease will likely take, and the treatment and prognosis of the disease.

At the risk of sounding dramatic, and I don’t mean at all to worry or frighten you, small cell cancers are the least favorable cancers to have. In fact, the distinction is usually only made whether a lung tumor is a small cell tumor or a non-small cell tumor because the treatment is so different. Small cell tumors are almost exclusively linked to smoking (yet one more reason for people not to smoke), and even people who have only smoked a few years have a much increased risk of developing these tumors over their entire lives, not just during the time they smoke.

Small cell tumors are not favorable because they are very aggressive. They spread quickly and aggressively. At the time they are diagnosed, roughly 80-90% of small cell cancers of the lungs have already spread (metasticized) to other parts of the body. If you know anything about cancers, this is always a bad sign. The treatment for any form of lung cancer other than small cell is usually surgical removal of the tumor, followed by chemotherapy. In the case of a small cell cancer, surgery is almost never an option. Since the tumors have almost always spread at the time of diagnosis, removing a lung or part of a lung will have no benefit at all. Do not be surprised if the CT scan or MRI of the brain already shows cancer there.

As far as time, because of the nature of these tumors, small cell cancers grow quickly. Cancers are usually reported in 5-year survival rates, a statistic that shows how many people with cancer are still alive five years after they are diagnosed. Small cell lung tumors have a very low survival rate at 5 years, I can’t remember exactly off hand, but I believe it’s somewhere around the 5-10% mark. The tumor has potential to be fatal within 6 weeks to 9 months of diagnosis. Your grandmother’s age may also be a factor in treatment, since her age may not allow her to tolerate chemotherapy easily.

That said, chemotherapy is the treatment for this disease, and in some people, can definitely help. Stay with her and give her whatever support you can offer. Your family may want to look into some kind of hospice program should her disease worsen. I wish you the best of luck during this difficult time.

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