Radiotherapy or not - husband's lung cancer has spread to his brain

Hi everyone. Really stuck in a horrible place right now. My husbands lung cancer has spread to his brain. We went to see our consultant who did radiotherapy on his lung in July. We thought that John would be made a mask and booked in for his treatment but instead, the consultant told us that the treatment may not work and John may have awful side effects so we might want to consider staying on the chemotherapy and taking steroids to ease the symptoms of the brain tumours. We were in tears and in the end John decided to carry on as he is for as long as he can. Having talked for hours and had some sleep we're having second thoughts. I don't want him to suffer anymore than he has to, but if there's a small chance the radiotherapy could give him more time I want him to have it. How can you make such an awful choice and know that it's the right one. 

  • Hi Plumduff,

    This sounds like a very difficult decision and I can understand this must be really tough.

    It sounds like you've got a lot of information from the consultant already, but if you have any more questions then do discuss these with them so you have all the information you need.

    If you feel you'd like to have a chat with someone, our nurses are also available. You can reach them on freephone 0808 800 4040 - Monday-Friday, 9-5.

    Hopefully you'll also get some more replies from others on the forum here soon if others have any thoughts to share.

    Wishing you all the best,

    Ben
    Cancer Chat Moderator