Hello,
My sister was diagnosed with stomach cancer in Nov 06. Started chemo in December (5FU, Epirubicon, Cisplatin). Had bad reactions to it. Ended up in ER with neuropathy problems, etc. They did a scan and the tumor in her stomach showed up but not any anwhere else. They decided this would be the time to remove her stomach. However, when they were going to do that, they found cancer seeding to her peritoneum so they closed her back up and she has been on chemo for palliative care. She had another PET scan in May which showed the tumor actually shrunk a little and had not spread. She has been on chemo this entire time. They did another PET scan this week which showed no spreading again! They actually think that possible there is no active cancer at the tumor site. She will have an endoscopy done to see if the cancer is active. If it is not active they are going to recommend taking a break from chemo as she has not been handling it well lately, need a blood transfusion last week. If there is still active cancer at the tumor site then they will continue on chemo. I find it hard to understand why they can't just take the darn tumor out and even if she had to do chemo once a month or whatever to hold the seedlings at bay. Her quality of life is not great though but she is not in pain right now. I don't know how anyone could ever decide to take chemo or not take chemo. If you take it, you don't feel good but it puts off feeling even worse. If you don't take it, the inevitable will come sooner than later. I know it is the patient's choice. It's almost like it would be easier if the doctors HAD to tell her what she HAD to do.