I met a very nice lady last spring at the alzheimers support group. The wives met in one room and our dementia husbands met in another group. I moved here because this lady really thought it would be good for me. Their Doctor had kept poo pooing her and the family about her husbands behaviour and balance problems. Finally he got vey sick just a few days before Christmas. The ambulance was called and he had pneumonia. When they did the exrays they found liaisons on his lungs so they did a ct scan. He had brain cancer as well as lung cancer, he was so far advanced that was moved to paliative care and passed away one month later. He had been having balance problems, memory and aggression. Diagnosis had been dementia but had never had any tests or referral to dementia Doctors. She is going to speak at the Alzheimer's groups to worn others to push for proper testing. She asked me to tell all if you to be sure to get the proper tests, and to not just let the family Doctor just say" dementia"
Absolutely!!! When I was a public health nurse, we saw this all the time. The family doctor would say "dementia", and that was that. We counseled families to go get a full neurological consult, so they knew what they were really dealing with, and could make some good plans for the future. As we on this website all know, "dementia" is just a catch-all term. You need a definitive diagnosis.
It is important to get proper testing to rule out other causes of symptoms, some of which can be cured. Even if the brain cancer we not treatable the correct dx could have led to action to better his quality of life.