Mother lung cancer and atrial fibrillation?

Rmy953 · Regular Joined: 08 Sep 2009 Posts: 13

Hi! I've posted a few times before about my 77 yr old mother with Stage 1 lung cancer, 1.5 cm, who cannot have surgery due to emphysema/copd. Tomorrow will be her 6th chemo treatment of taxotere and carboplatin. She is also doing radiation Mon-Fri. We had to call an ambulance on Friday because she was in Atrial fibrillation. She has had this before - but it hasn't happened for 2-3 years. Has anyone ever heard of lung cancer/treatments causing A-fib? She is on a blood thinner but had to be off of that for a week for colonoscopy last Thurs (which was neg for cancer). Thanks for any info you might have!!!

pbj11 · Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 2402

Hi,

I don't know if it's connected to the chemo or just the condition. My husband went into a-fib when he got his one and only blood transfusion. Dealt with that the rest of his life. Have no idea why it occurred. He still was getting chemo, but not that particular combo. It may have been from a tumor that he had wrapped around his pulmonary artery.

He'd go in and out of it and they left me to monitor whether it was happening to him. Yikes!! They put him on cartia -- some type of heart meds to help regulate it after he spent hours in the ER getting it settled down.

Hopefully the docs will follow up with this problem and ensure that she is getting appropriate treatment.

Good luck and God bless,
PBJ
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Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.

Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Rmy953 · Regular Joined: 08 Sep 2009 Posts: 13

Thank you for your quick reply, PBJ. When mom had the a-fib years ago they put her on coumadin which means several visits a week at first to the doctor to see if her blood is too thin, then weekly appts. She also bruised quite easily. She is on Plavix which is nothing like Coumadin in terms of all of the dr visits. Just what she needs, more dr appts. I know it's difficult to try and monitor whether they are in a-fib or not. It's like you watch them like a hawk for symptoms. I just wasn't sure if it was cancer related - due to chemo or radiation. I guess that's a question we'll get answered today when she sees her cardiologist. She only has 3 weeks left of radiation - yay! Sorry you had to go through that with your husband along with his cancer...

pbj11 · Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 2402

Hi again,

We have a friend who has a-fib and is on coumadin. He had to do that every week check too. Oh poop, just what you need --- more doctor's visits and lab work.

I think the reason why my husband wasn't placed on that was he was so far along and his tumors were bleeding out into his pleural effusion. A blood thinner likely would have hastened the end for him. Coumadin IS the standard treatment from what I've gathered as our friend had all this done at the Mayo Clinic.

Lots of luck!!

God bless and hugs,
PBJ
_________________
Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.

Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Rmy953 · Regular Joined: 08 Sep 2009 Posts: 13

Well, Mom had atrial fib again on 11/8 and was admitted to the hospital. She had a-fib on 11/1 as well. She had a heart catherization which showed no blockages. So now we are in limbo. She was released from the hospital on Wed but she is weak and discouraged. She decided this past week she will quit both chemo and raidation. But we are seeing her chemo oncologist tomorrow to discuss this with him. Something is causing her atrial fib's...2 in one week, both requiring hospital visits. We have talked with the nurses, both chemo and radiation, and both say it is not the treatments. We are getting her thyroid checked tomorrow after her dr visit. Just don't know what to do...don't know what do say to her. Thank you for reading...

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