There Is A Senior At My School That Has Fourth Stage Brain Cancer. Is This Bad? How Many Stages Of Brain Cancer Are There?
2007-10-21 13:22:36 · 17 answers · asked by Kaylaa.<3 2 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Cancer
Yes, it's bad. Cancer is staged to determine the extent of the growth and the prognosis (expected future of the patient). The stages are 1, 2, 3, and 4. Four is the worst. This poor kid is on death watch, and may not be around to graduate.
Count your blessings.
"There, but for the grace of God, go I."
2007-10-21 13:26:25 · answer #1 · answered by Sugar Pie 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Hello,
There are a lot of details that will affect the exact answer you are giving. I will outline a few below, but if the senior is a close friend of yours, then he/she should talk in some detail with his/her (I will just type "he" or his from now on) oncologist to get all the details explained.
The first detail to know is what is the primary site of the cancer. If the primary site is within the brain (i.e. true brain cancer, that is not found anywhere else in the body), then the "stage" of the cancer does not apply. Rather the "grade" is the important features. (Stage refers to the degree of spread of the cancer, while grade refers to how aggressive the cells are.) For brain cancer, grade is on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being the most aggressive. If your friend has a grade 4 brain cancer then this is VERY serious. It is difficult to estimate the average survival with this grade for an individual of high school age (is this a high school senior?) but if we compare to the average expectancy for 50 year olds, then with all aggressive treatments, the median life expectancy is about 14 months. This can vary greatly however, as some people will live only weeks and a few can live more than 2.5 years.
If this is a primary tumour that started somewhere outside the brain, but has now spread to the brain (this is not truly brain cancer, but rather cancer of the _______ with metastases to the brain) then this would be correctly called stage IV cancer. Stage 4 usually will refer to cancer that has spread to a distant site. In this case the prognosis is generally very poor, with a very short life expectancy, however there are some exceptions. The most noteable of this, is one of the most cmmonly found tumoursin young males, and that is testicular cancer, which has the best prognosis of any cancer. If your friend has testicular cancer with brain metastases, then prognosis can actually be relatively good witha >50% chance of cure.
In short, many details need to be determined before you can say for certain how dire things are. Despite this, any cancer within the brain or spine is always very serious, despite the variability in prognosis.
Hope this helps.
2007-10-22 02:16:01 · answer #2 · answered by rudy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First off ...cliff you are incredibly insensitive!
Fourth Stage Brain cancer is very serious. But more and more treatments are being developed to treat it, there is no cure for it yet.
There are only four stages of brain tumors grade 3 and 4 are typically refered to as cancerous or fast growing.
The most common type of grade 4 brain cancer is called GBM.
Since the person is probably about 18 that is actaully a positive for them. Younger patients are tolerating new treatments better and survial is typically longer then with older patients.
Common treatments are surgery, radiation and chemo. There are few different types of chemo the most used being temodar.
I hope your friend can be one of the lucky to fight the cancer and win.
2007-10-22 14:49:06 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My friend is in it now. Yes, the 4th is the bad one. She was diagnosed the 3rd of Aug. She's failing pretty fast. Hers was lung cancer, but she also has cancer in her brain too as well as in her back. The brain cancer is going to be the one that will ultimately terminate her life. The doctors seem to think that she has a month left now, but after seeing her this week, I really don't know. Every day is a bad day for her now and is losing her sight . All we can do now is pray that she doesn't suffer too much.
2007-10-21 20:35:09 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My sister n Law died of brain cancer, and if the person is in stage 4, they are not going to live much longer sadly.. People with brain cancer have a life expectancy of 8 to 10 years.
2007-10-21 20:26:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
First of all god! People can be so negative! I know someone who has stage 4 of cancer. Stage for does not mean TERMINAL! and aren't we all terminal people!? WE are all going to die! And second, there are miracles out there and medicine is better. Sure many die of cancer but how old were they? 70-80 and couldn't take chemo? What about their previous health, did they do drugs? Smoke?
We are all going to die! DRiving is a risk! DOn't listen to thse people who are negative, stage 4 just means it probably spread, that doesn't mean it spread all over the body, it probably just spread to certain parts not all of the body!
Don't give up! THere are many cancer survivors out there, its out there and people are living free of cancer!
2007-10-21 21:36:05 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I hate to say this but in cancer lingo, "fourth stage" means the final one before death.
2007-10-21 20:37:08 · answer #7 · answered by Brian G 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
thats bad. i believe that there is 5 stages of cancer. im sorry to here this. my 16 year old cousin has cancer also. but look it up online also to see what you can do to help
good luck and best of wishes
2007-10-21 20:27:21 · answer #8 · answered by ♥manni♥ 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
it is bad
i think fourth stage is the last stage and if it is then he doesnt have much time left
2007-10-21 20:27:39 · answer #9 · answered by J 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can check out www.webmd.com for information on brain cancer it tells you all types of medical info
2007-10-21 20:38:38 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋