brain lesions from breast cancer - is it as awful as it sounds?

[Kungfutea]

My Mum was treated for breast cancer 3 years ago - it was stage 3, grade 3 and she had chemo, herceptin and radiotherapy.

She started having double vision and we just found out she has 5 brain lesions which are metastases from the breast cancer.

She's just begun having whole brain radiation (they started the day after discovering the lesions) and is on steroids. But the statisics look awful, awful, awful. I live abroad and we're planning to go back at Christmas - but I'm even wondering if that's too late :(

Doctors are non-committal. They haven't given a time and are waiting to see if the lesions respond to radiotherapy.

Are there any good news stories or should we prepare for the worst?

Oh dear, how horrid for all of you. If it was me, I think I'd want to come back now just in case. If Mum's OK, then you've had a bonus trip, but a lot can happen in 4 months.

Unfortunately, I can't go back right now. Actually we're going on holiday tomorrow to see my Dad who lives in a third country (we all live on different continents) as he has stage 4 lung cancer and we don't know how long we have with him either. Although now it's all gone tits up with my Mum but my Dad's cancer is under check at the moment - obviously we didn't know all of this when we booked!

Oh heck, you poor things. Guess you just have to enjoy your holiday with your Dad for now, send your Mum lots of positive vibes and maybe make a decision when you are back home again - maybe there will be some news by then. Good luck!

It's all quite hard to process, everyhing that's happened. Neither of my parents are that old really and I feel so sad for my kids that they might not have their grandparents around.

But then we were sure that we'd be burying my Dad already because the statistics on stage 4 lung cancer are so dire but a year on from his diagnosis, he says he's never felt better! He goes for low level chemo every 3 weeks and his cancer isn't progressing.

I guess I'm hoping for something similar for my Mum but I read that brain metastasis is very hard to treat. I really want to hear some good news stories about living with breast cancer brain mets because everything I read is so depressing.

Sorry can't help with any stories re brain mets but I do know someone with bone and liver mets who has kept going for several years with no progression of her disease, so it can and does happen. Fingers crossed for you all..

Sorry to hear about your mum and dad. If you post on the tamoxigang thread, it's a few under this one, I'm sure someone will be able to help. Ive just been diagnosed with breast cancer but a lot of the ladies have been living with cancer for years and are very helpful and knowledgable.

My own experience of it, from a family member, is that even after secondary cancers have appeared in the brain, you can be brought to a point where you are stable for quite a long period of time. Also, I think that the brain can find 'work arounds' to get past the injured areas.

I found 'CancerBacup' information service very useful in this situation.

Best wishes.