Information On Chemo/Radiation

Hi I'm a 45 year old women just diagnosed with Rectal Cancer. My doctor recommends Chemo/Radiation to shrink the tumor followed by surgery to remove the cancer. He hopes to spare me Colostomy by doing this. My question is how long (weeks, months) does the Chemo/Radiation take. Are they given at the same time or one after the other.

Thanks

On 4/23/2007 Coloradian wrote:

Hi I'm a 45 year old women just diagnosed with Rectal Cancer. My doctor recommends Chemo/Radiation to shrink the tumor followed by surgery to remove the cancer. He hopes to spare me Colostomy by doing this. My question is how long (weeks, months) does the Chemo/Radiation take. Are they given at the same time or one after the other.

Thanks

My husband just finished his chemo radiation about 3 weeks ago.  The regiman can vary but he took Xeloda pills 7 days a week for 6 weeks, he had 3 infusions of oxciliplantin (every other week) during those same 6 weeks and he had radiation 28 times (every day M-F).  It didnt really hit him real hard until about day 10 and then he was extremely tired the rest of the treatments.  He was very sensitive to the cold but it got better between treatments.  And now he is feeling really good after finishing up 3 weeks ago.  Just waiting for surgery, about 6 weeks after he finished the meds.  He will be having 4.5 more months of chemo starting approx 8 weeks after surgery, my husband is 32 yrs old and is Stage 3 by the way.  We are hoping for shrinkage though the Dr told him there is about a 90% chance he will have the bad anyway do to how low the tumor is in the rectum.  

To answer your original question, the chemo and the radiation are given at the same time, your treatments are actually cumulative so you will feel worse the longer you are treated and the radiation keeps working for 2-3 months after you stop treatment. 

What stage are you?   Where are you being treated?  My husbands worse complaint was the burning from the radiation, his butt got really burnt and the last 3 days of radiation were more localized and stronger and it really did a number on his system.  Wish you the best of luck.

Mel 

On 4/23/2007 Bmxspeedqueen wrote:

 

On 4/23/2007 Coloradian wrote:

Hi I'm a 45 year old women just diagnosed with Rectal Cancer. My doctor recommends Chemo/Radiation to shrink the tumor followed by surgery to remove the cancer. He hopes to spare me Colostomy by doing this. My question is how long (weeks, months) does the Chemo/Radiation take. Are they given at the same time or one after the other.

Thanks

 

My husband just finished his chemo radiation about 3 weeks ago.  The regiman can vary but he took Xeloda pills 7 days a week for 6 weeks, he had 3 infusions of oxciliplantin (every other week) during those same 6 weeks and he had radiation 28 times (every day M-F).  It didnt really hit him real hard until about day 10 and then he was extremely tired the rest of the treatments.  He was very sensitive to the cold but it got better between treatments.  And now he is feeling really good after finishing up 3 weeks ago.  Just waiting for surgery, about 6 weeks after he finished the meds.  He will be having 4.5 more months of chemo starting approx 8 weeks after surgery, my husband is 32 yrs old and is Stage 3 by the way.  We are hoping for shrinkage though the Dr told him there is about a 90% chance he will have the bad anyway do to how low the tumor is in the rectum.  

 

To answer your original question, the chemo and the radiation are given at the same time, your treatments are actually cumulative so you will feel worse the longer you are treated and the radiation keeps working for 2-3 months after you stop treatment. 

 

What stage are you?   Where are you being treated?  My husbands worse complaint was the burning from the radiation, his butt got really burnt and the last 3 days of radiation were more localized and stronger and it really did a number on his system.  Wish you the best of luck.

 

Mel 

Thanks for the information Mel. I have to get my CT Scan, PET Scan and CEA Blood test now. All they could tell me is that it is not stage IV. I'm in Denver Colorado. Where is your husband getitng his treatment? I'm seroiusly thinking of get a consultation from Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York, and at least go there for the surgery. I feel that I will have better expertise available to me there, than in Denver.

I wish all the best to your husband and you, I know from past experience that cancer treatment as in some ways as hard for teh family as it is for the patient. 

I am a stage IV colon cancer with mets to the liver survivor.  I would go to Sloan.  Studies have shown that people who go to a top hospital, have a 28% better chance of surviving.

If you read this web site by Richarch Bloch, it will tell you why it's so important to get cancer right the first time. 

http://www.blochcancer.org/

Click on patient info and read Fighting cancer.

You will see that Sloan Kettering is rated high for cancer at this web site

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/tophosp.h

You can get free trips through Angel Flight

http://www.angelflight.org/

And Angel Corp

http://www.corpangelnetwork.org/about/index.html

You can also stay for free at hope lodge

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/SHR/content/SHR_2.1_x_Hope_Lod

I stress the importance of going to a good place, because the Dr.'s in my state gave me no hope.  Said I could die at any minute.  I had to go to a top hospital to receive the best care.  I chose to go to the University of Minnesota and I've been in remission for almost 3 years and so far no evidence of disease.

Let us know how we can help.

On 4/25/2007 Cptmac wrote:

I am a stage IV colon cancer with mets to the liver survivor.  I would go to Sloan.  Studies have shown that people who go to a top hospital, have a 28% better chance of surviving.

If you read this web site by Richarch Bloch, it will tell you why it's so important to get cancer right the first time. 

http://www.blochcancer.org/

Click on patient info and read Fighting cancer.

You will see that Sloan Kettering is rated high for cancer at this web site

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/tophosp.h

You can get free trips through Angel Flight

http://www.angelflight.org/

And Angel Corp

http://www.corpangelnetwork.org/about/index.html

You can also stay for free at hope lodge

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/SHR/content/SHR_2.1_x_Hope_Lod

I stress the importance of going to a good place, because the Dr.'s in my state gave me no hope.  Said I could die at any minute.  I had to go to a top hospital to receive the best care.  I chose to go to the University of Minnesota and I've been in remission for almost 3 years and so far no evidence of disease.

Let us know how we can help.

Thank you for this information. Is University of Minnesota well rated for surgery?  My tumor is very close to the sphincter muscles and so there is a possibility that I might have to deal with a colostomy, and I want to make sure that I get the best surgical expertise to aviod that if I can.

Thank you again for the information and God Bless you.

The reason I chose to go there is because Dr. Rothenburger is rated one of the top colon surgeons in the US.  He is the individual that other doctors look to for answers.  If you look through the book by Castle Connolly that rates America's Top Doctors and America's Top Cancer Doctors, you will find his name.

You can find him on his web site at

http://www.cancer.umn.edu/research/profiles/rothenberger.htm

You can look at this website about a conference they did on colon's

http://www.blueskybroadcast.com/Client/ASCRS/

You will see the U of Minnesota's portion at 

 Does Reality Reflect Best Practice for Rectal Cancer Surgery?
Presented by: R. Ricciardi, B. Virnig, R. Madoff, D. Rothenberger, N. Baxter

Of course, this is last years news. 

Dr. Ricciardi hooked my colon back together with a special tool that stapled it all over.  Dr. Nancy Baxter is the person who researched how many lymph nodes should be taken out at a minimum to achieve maximum survival.  The standard is 16.  Less isn't as good because the lymph nodes could spread through a minimum of 16.  Some people only have 6 or 9 lymph nodes taken out. 

Unfortunately, Dr. Rothenburger was not in to do my surgery, but Dr. Bullard Dunn was.  She went to Harvard and Stanford and has developed a patent and is awaiting word on her second patent.  She is also married to the Medical Director of Surgery.  So I felt comfortable in the people doing my surgery, because they were trained under Dr. Rothenburger.  Plus, they had the most up to date research. 

Plus, my oncologist was awesome.  Dr. Edward Greeno took the time to answer all of my questions, never made me feel rushed.  I look forward to my appointments there.  Here is a web site for Dr. Greeno. 

http://www.med.umn.edu/hot/faculty/greeno/home.html

I bring a tape recorder to all of my appointments, I then transcribe them later.  I have learned a lot from them. 

Let me know if you have any questions.

FYI, I'm glad you're considering going somewhere else.  Since I had a bad experience.  But I just remebered, one of the books I read was

He also had rectal cancer and lived in Colorado.  I think he went to a hospital in Denver, but didn't like it there.  So I think he went to a hospital in California.  I would highly recommend going to a top cancer hospital. 

Let us know how else we can help.

To answer you question:

Usually it takes from 4-6 weeks at the same time. Make sure you read all posts concerning after effects. Particulary after surgery. Ask you Doctor to tell you the truth concerning this.