Inge passed away on Sunday, November 10th 2024 from a massive brain hemorrhage as a result of an LMD brain metastasis enveloping most of her brain in a manner of just over a week. She slowly showed signs of increased cognitive decline over the last month, but it was difficult to determine if that was a result of her full brain gamma radiation which was compressed from 10 days into just 5 at much higher radiation levels. MD Anderson was absent for this period of her life, scheduling follow-up CT Scans and MRIs for middle November. I believe their hope was that she would pass before the follow-up had to be executed.
Inge was reassigned to a new medical oncologist at MD Anderson after her primary oncologist came down with cancer himself. The new oncologist seemed more concerned with establishing her career than seeking the best treatment for her patients. She cancelled the routine 3 month follow-up after treatment citing it was not necessary because Inge had such a complete pathological response to treatment. She then cancelled her 6 month follow-up citing the same reason, and a conflict with another engagement. On the seventh month, she cancelled once again and suggested a video call visit for the following week. That week, Inge was diagnosed with Leptomeningeal Disease (LMD) – an incurable deadly cancer that penetrated the leptomeninges membrane and entering the spinal fluid surrounding her brain and spinal cord. Her prognosis with full-brain gamma radiation was only 3 – 4 months.
While MD Anderson boast an end to cancer, their practice is to do research on patients that have a chance of survival. Those that don’t, are simply cast aside. Although Triple-Negative Inflammatory Breast Cancer has a 22% chance of recurring as a brain metastasis within two years, MD Anderson did nothing to diagnose if this might be happening in Inge. Instead, they took the attitude that “we’ll just wait and see what happens” while ignoring her complaints of headaches and lower back pain. So Inge was allowed to developed an LMD brain metastasis, and no one at MD Anderson did anything to catch it before it became lethal.
Cancer treatment is only as effective as medical oncologists, nurses, and staff are willing to detect its recurrence before it fully evolves. MD Anderson takes a “wait and see” approach, since research is geared around treating cancer rather the preventing it. I couldn’t be more disappointed in MD Anderson. They claim to be #1 in cancer treatment in the U.S. Personally, I think that is an arrogant and self-serving baseless claim.