Time To Change Treatments??

My Mom was diagnosed with rectal cancer in the fall of 2004. She had surgery followed by several rounds of 5FU and radiation. After a six month break her CT scan showed it had metastsized to her lungs on both lungs and several small spots so it was inoperable. She started on Folfiri and has had 21 rounds to date. She has tolerated it well but feels pretty lousy for the first 5 days after treatment. She takes Kytril and steroids. She started on a 2 week cycle, went to a 3 and has been on a 4 week one for quite a while now. She also had a 20% reduction as she couldn't tolerate a full dose. Her last 2 CT scans have shown a small amount of growth on one tumor on her lung. The other tumors remain stable and her original site and other organs show no signs. Her tumor has grown from 1.5 cm to1.9 and seems to grom about 2mm every 3 months. They are now trying to decide if it is time to change to FOLFOX. I hear about all the scary side effects and not sure if we shouldn't take a few more months of the slow growth before we start. However if the FOLFOX can stop the growth or help shrink the tumors maybe we should start??  How long can you be on FOLFOX as a second line of treatment? Our Dr. says some patients have a good run on it for years but I don't hear of that very often. Will her side effects become too hard to handle?? Any comments or experiences you can share would be helpful. Thanks to those who reply and good luck to eveyone in their fight.

hello,

Hope all is well.  My dad was dx with rectal cancer in Feb. 2006, had surgery, chemo and radiation, he finished all that in Dec. 2006.  On July 9th 2007, He went for his ct scan of abdomin, pelvice, liver, etc. and chest xray.  all was clear, except the ct scan picked up 3 small spots on lungs, the regular chest xray was clear.  He went back for a base line ct scan on August 2nd, the spots were still there but they said they were the size of grain of salt and pepper. He will go again in November to compare.  Dr. not concerned right now.  What size is your moms when they picked them up and did she have a regular chest xray?

Cynthia

 

If you feel comfortable with your Oncologist.... trust him to guide the process.  If you are not sure you agree then I would say request to move to FOLFOX and see what he says.  

My husband had 6 mos of FOLFOX after his rectal resection.  He was a big strong healthy guy before cancer and tolerated it pretty well for about 4 months.... but ultimately he now has permanent numbness on the soles of his feet (just can't close his eyes when he washes his hair in the shower now) and some leg weakness that comes and goes.  Some people have all nueropathy subside once treatment is done and sometimes it doesn't.  So I guess you just have to weight the side effects (possibly long term) with the potential benefits.

If I can be of further help just ask!  

Wendy