I would offer my opinion that, yes, she is too old and too frail to be taking such drastic treatments. Chemo absolutly wrecks your body, You must be in excellent shape before you start this stuff, as it wrecks havoc on the best of bodies. She must consider quality of life.My mother (who passed away in July from lung cancer) had her lung removed, and they wanted to start chemo shortly thereafter. The very day of her first treatment, my brother was with her, and they decided that with only an 8% benefit, and with how lousy she was feeling with the recent surgery, to forego any treatment. Our/her opinion is it no doubt would have killed her. We feel blessed to have had her as long as we did. In short, take into accout her overall health and how she feels right now, and also what %age of benefit they feel that this treatment will offer her. Best of luck, Lindsey

There are I no age limits. Indeed, doctors are more likely to use other measurements such as pulmonary capacity and performance status to assess a patient. I think this is her call. If she wants to go forward and fight, she should do it, and use the best medicine that is available. If she feels differently, that is likely her decision.

I have to agree with Bobby5000 that it is her call. Let her be your guide.

Lifting you up in prayer,

Rita

Thank you for your input. I am just trying to arm myself with as much knowledge as possible so I can be as prepared as possible.

She is a 76 year old woman that has smoked a pack of cigarettes a day since she was 15. I know that this was going to happen eventually...

I'm hoping for the best but planning for the worst.

Please talk with her about "quality of life" and the percentage of benefit. I will NEVER regret my mother not undergoing treatment....lung cancer is NOT curable, as of yet... It overall depends on the mental and physical health and well being of your grandmother right now. Can they not go in and remove a lobe of her lung??

She is pretty down right now. She hasn't ate or drank anything in two days. She has had major depression her entire life and is an alcoholic.

I understand that she is already living on borrowed time. My family won't tell me much about what is happening because I was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis, and stress really sets it off. What they don't understand is that I would feel better if I knew what was happening

My mother had small cell lung cancer, which is much more aggressive than large cell and smoked, I don't know which yours has, but my mom didn't have much of a choice at time of diagnosis since they only gave her 3 months w/o chemo and who only wants that little to make preparations so she decided to get because with it she was told 17 to 21 months and she did live 22 1/2 months, which we are grateful for, but of course never felt it was still enough and wish she could be with us today. You never really know if their prognosis of life span is correct though and only would have if she would have turned down treatment and only lived a few months, but that would of really devastated us and I know she did it mostly for us so I hope it was infact the chemo that worked in her situation. My mom was 65 when diagnosed. She did great with chemo which was VP-16 and carboplatin. Good luck and so sorry to hear about your grandma, HOPE SHE SUSTAINS LIFE FOR A LONG TIME TO COME!!