Details from wikipedia
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), WHO classification name "glioblastoma", is the most common and most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor in humans, involving glial cells and accounting for 52% of all functional tissue brain tumor cases and 20% of all intracranial tumors.
Treatment can involve chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Median survival with standard-of-care radiation and chemotherapy with temozolomide is 15 months. Median survival without treatment is 4½ months. Surgery is controversial because no randomized controlled trials have ever been done.
Signs and symptoms
Although common symptoms of the disease include seizure, nausea and vomiting, headache, and hemiparesis, the single most prevalent symptom is a progressive memory, personality, or neurological deficit due to temporal and frontal lobe involvement. The kind of symptoms produced depends highly on the location of the tumor, more so than on its pathological properties. The tumor can start producing symptoms quickly, but occasionally is an asymptomatic condition until it reaches an enormous size.
Prognosis
The median survival time from the time of diagnosis without any treatment is 3 months, but with treatment survival of 1–2 years is common. Increasing age (> 60 years of age) carries a worse prognostic risk. Death is usually due to cerebral edema or increased intracranial pressure.
A blog dedicated to Charlotte "Emma" Mitchell and her struggle with cancer.
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Comment by Dave
ReplyDeleteThe progressive memory loss is getting pretty bad. Yesterday (Sunday) at the dinner table Charlotte informed us that it was Tuesday. When we politely corrected her she became very annoyed and insisted it was Tuesday! The whole table went quiet. We let it go. I talked to her later that night about the incident and she closed her eyes and kind of hung her head in what looked almost like shame. I quickly changed the subject because the last thing I wanted to do was hurt her feelings.
She closes her eyes, hangs her head, or turns the other way in what appears to be an act of defiance mixed with confusion whenever we ask her something that requires a semi-complex response.
The one thing she is still very quick to do is move to action when one of our kids starts crying. She'll appear in a room on the other side of the house in seconds if there seems to be trouble. She's also very quick to correct or remind our kids to be careful if she thinks they are running too fast or playing too rough (usually done very quietly, almost under her breath).
I've definitely noticed all three of the above mentioned symptoms of Glioblastoma: progressive memory loss, change in personality and neurological deficit. It was about a week ago that she surprised Sheelagh and I while we were watching a movie. She came downstairs unexpectedly and insisted that we had snuck in the house like teenagers. However, we had just finished assembling a table with her in the living room only a few minutes beforehand. That was when it really sunk in for me that she was sick. I tried to hold back tears but my emotions were too close to the surface.
It's hard to see this previously very powerful woman in such a confused state, but its been nice to spend some time with her after the surgery and I think it has been good for the kids to see some of the realities of mortality.