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Lung Cancer Spread to the Brain

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Last Modified: January 4, 2010

Dear OncoLink "Ask The Experts,"

My cousin had lung cancer and now has brain cancer- but he says it’s not brain cancer - is he just trying to make me feel better?

, , responds:

When you as an American travel to Mexico, we don’t start calling you Mexican.   You’re still an American, you’ve just relocated yourself to Mexico.   The same holds true for cancer cells—we name them from where they started.

The difference is very meaningful to what to expect from the cancer—lung cancer has certain tendencies in terms of how it behaves and brain cancer has different ones.   In particular, the therapies that work the best are very different between lung cancer and brain cancer.  

This question and answer was part of the OncoLink Brown Bag Chat Series, Lung Cancer: Where are We Now? HYPERLINK View the entire transcript.