One of my very close relatives was diagnosed to have kidney cancer on September last year. She underwent a surgery, which reportedly went very well. However, she went back to re-check this summer and was detected that the cancer has spreaded over both of her lungs. Since this September, she has been taking a medication named Gefitinib, which is supposed to be the only effective drug against lung cancer as of today. But I would really want to know what is her real chance of surviving from the lung cancer. Thank you very much.
Cancer - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Your relative is at a very advanced stage.....Although every sufferer is different it is my experience that at this stage it could be anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, unfortunately lung cancer is a very rapid and aggressive cancer and is not often detectable untill its later stages...hence why the survival rate/expectancy is quite low.... i send good wishes to you and your relative xx
2 :
Your friend has a secondary cancer or mets to the lung which means that the kidney cells have metastasized. This is not the same disease as lung cancer, nor does it behave in the same way. Gefitinib is one of a whole family of new targeted therapy drugs that is approved for lung cancer but can be used off trial for other cancers as well. Gefitinib is a Tyrosine kinase inhibitor . . other drugs in this family include Dasatinib, Erlotinib, Imatinib, Lapatinib, Nilotinib, Sorafenib, and Sunitinib. All these drugs, but Imatinib in particular has shown significant efficiacy in the treatment of Gastrointestinal stromal tumor and Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. As for your friends chances for survival .. well . . if the Gefitinib is working for her than she should know by now. It takes about four to six weeks for a chemo to be tested to see if it works on a patient. Usually a patient will have a CT to check to see if the disease is stable, progressing or improving (tumors disappearing) . . her doctor may decide to keep her on the gefitinib as long as the tumors do not progress. So, your question is impossible to answer. She should be checking into the possiblity of surgery or radiofrequency ablation to handle mets under a certain size. However, the gefitinib, if it is working . . has very few side effects and a patient can tolerate it over a long period of time . . so, that may be her best option at this point. That is up to her to decide. People living with cancer http://www.plwc.org/
3 :
Panda is right, kidney cancer that has spread to the lungs is not lung cancer it is still kidney cancer.My wife is stage IV kidney cancer and is on one of the targeted therapy Panda mentioned sunitinib (brand name Sutent). She is doing better on this, than any other therapy she has tried.I think targeted therapy is the best thing going for kidney cancer at this time.
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