My father has just been diagnosed with a Grade 4 tumour in the right frontal lobe of his brain. It is about the size of a tennis ball and inoperable. He was expected to die last week but has been treated with steroids and has rallied a bit. He is losing the use of his left side rapidly but is fairly lucid for short periods (10 minutes at a time).
The steroids merely reduce the swelling in the brain and have no effect on the tumour which continues to grow.
The hospital is now talking about radiotherapy but this will only shrink the tumour and it will grow back again. It will buy him 6 months to a year living in a nursing home. I think he would hate that.
If we do nothing more he will die sooner but possibly more gently in a hospice (if a bed becomes available in time). He is 86.
What would you do and why?