Cancer Discussions - September 15th, 2009 - 4 Comments
After being diagnosed with brain cancer, how long is life expectancy?
Once someone is diagnosed with brain cancer, how long do they generally live (on average). Let’s say that the cancer has progressed significantly. How many months or years would someone have to live?
Depending on the stage of the tumor, life expectancy is anywhere from a few months to five years.
Hi I’m James from the oncology unit at Musgrove park hospital and we like to never give a time estimate to a patient recently diagnosed but we say their life expectancy depends if the cancer is fast track or not. we like to tell the patient when they have little time left which then we diagnose the patient as terminally ill which means we expect them to pass away within 6 months. Fast track cancer means the cells are multiplying at a fast rate and the average life expectancy is 10 – 16 weeks (3-4 months) but non – fast track cancer can be anything from (6 – 60 months) but depends if the cancer spreads to form a secondary cancer and if the patient has another illness. message me to ask me anything and i will answer them for you.
There are a variety of factors. Some primary tumors, such as a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) have a life expectancy of less than a year sometimes only a few months. However, we have had patients that have survived with aggressive treatment, against the odds, for a number of years. Some other low grade tumors, such as an astrocytoma or or oligodendroglioma have a much longer life expectancy with treatment, well over five years. There are other non-malignant tumors that do not particularly affect life expectancy.
On the other hand if the cancer in the brain is a metastatic spread of the disease to the brain from a primary tumor, that can significantly decrease any life expectancy. In this case it is dependent on how far the disease has spread and whether it has infiltrated other organs or the skeletal system. Again, aggressive treatment can often prolong life for a number of years if the cancer responds and if it is caught early, if not, it can be a little as a few months.
catch http://www.cancerssociety.org for more info…