Rectal cancer metastasized to lung

On 7/7/2008 Suinoregon wrote:

I'm cross-posting this in hopes of getting more replies.... 

 

Hi,

My mom has Stage 4 rectal cancer, spread to her lungs last
fall. We now have 3 well-respected surgeons willing to do surgery to
remove 11 nodules from both sides of her lungs. But other docs say
there are no studies that show that it will help prolong her life and
at least one oncologist said she would not have her mother go through
the surgery.

Our family is wrestling with what to do. We don't
want her to suffer needless pain from the surgery but we want every
possible chance at saving her. She has two new grandbabies.

Has
anyone else been in a similar situation and decided to go for surgery?
Some doctors are surprised to hear the surgeons are willing to operate.
Do surgeons just want to cut? Why are we getting such different answers
from different doctors?

 

My mom is on Xeloda and Avastin, which have greatly improved her quality of life.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Su

Su,

I would be curious on how they were going to do this.  11 Nodules in both lungs are quite a few.  If it was just one tumor then I can see where they would take a portion of one lung to get it but the lungs are the most difficult to operate on because unlike the liver, they do not grow back.  I have even heard that doctors have a hard time even seeing the tumors when they operate on the lungs and sometimes take pieces of lung tissue out that don't even contain the tumors.  So I am very caution in thinking that they can do this.  Do you know any details on what kind of procedure they are doing?  I have been told that whenever you have multiple nodules then surgery is ruled out of they are in the lungs.  Let me know details because if they can do this then I would like some info for myself.  Thanks, 

Jeff

 Each surgeon offered a slightly different approach. One said he could do minimally invasive on one side, a traditional thorachotomy on the other. The second said it would have to be trad. thorachotomy on both sides. Third said he would try minimally invasive on both sides first. They said they would operate b/c the cancer is stable, only in her lungs at this point, and the nodules are very small and on/near the surface, which makes them easier to get to. The original surgeon declined to operate b/c of the number of nodules, but her oncologist said that was a textbook response and encouraged us to go for second opinions, which we have. Also, my mom had TB when she was younger and they are not sure how many of the nodules may actually be old TB scars.

On 7/7/2008 Jeffy wrote:

 

On 7/7/2008 Suinoregon wrote:

I'm cross-posting this in hopes of getting more replies.... 

 

Hi,

My mom has Stage 4 rectal cancer, spread to her lungs last
fall. We now have 3 well-respected surgeons willing to do surgery to
remove 11 nodules from both sides of her lungs. But other docs say
there are no studies that show that it will help prolong her life and
at least one oncologist said she would not have her mother go through
the surgery.

Our family is wrestling with what to do. We don't
want her to suffer needless pain from the surgery but we want every
possible chance at saving her. She has two new grandbabies.

Has
anyone else been in a similar situation and decided to go for surgery?
Some doctors are surprised to hear the surgeons are willing to operate.
Do surgeons just want to cut? Why are we getting such different answers
from different doctors?

 

My mom is on Xeloda and Avastin, which have greatly improved her quality of life.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Su

Su,

I would be curious on how they were going to do this.  11 Nodules in both lungs are quite a few.  If it was just one tumor then I can see where they would take a portion of one lung to get it but the lungs are the most difficult to operate on because unlike the liver, they do not grow back.  I have even heard that doctors have a hard time even seeing the tumors when they operate on the lungs and sometimes take pieces of lung tissue out that don't even contain the tumors.  So I am very caution in thinking that they can do this.  Do you know any details on what kind of procedure they are doing?  I have been told that whenever you have multiple nodules then surgery is ruled out of they are in the lungs.  Let me know details because if they can do this then I would like some info for myself.  Thanks, 

Jeff

My husband got 3 small sub-cm nodules while he was recovering from his surgery for removing another sub-cm nodule.  The doctor advised against surgery. He's being treated on a 2nd line chemo because he could not withstand 5 FU.  Another oncologist advised other ways such as cyberknife or radio-ablation.  I checked out the Cyberknife site and there are doctors replying inquiries.  You may want to check it out. Just google Cyberknife.

Hope this helps. Let me know what your decision is.

God bless you.

Cecilia 

On 4/19/2008 cecgrove wrote:

My husband was diagnosed with rectal cancer stage 4 in 02/07.  After 3 surgeries (1 was a complete miss with big chunks of good lung tissues emoved but the small sub-cm tumor left in the lung), radiation and chemo, we thought that he would be cancer free.  After recovering from his last lung surgery end Feb 08, he had a scan this week and found that there were 3 new lung tumor nodules that grew within the last 60 days during his surgery and recovery.  We were devastated and we both felt that this is it.  We had 4 kids under 13 years old.  He's now going out doing things he want to do but didn't have a chance because of the responsibilities, probably thinking that he is going to die soon.   I don't want to live in fear and am losing sleep every night thinking that he will be gone soon.  Can you share with us your experience and bring us some hope.

Also I have to say the experience with using different famous institutions and doctors have not been very pleasant.  They were unwillling to work with each other in the  best interest of the patient.

God bless!

Cecilia 

 

hi Cecilia sorry for what you and your  husband are going through after treatment has he tryed  contacking Dr. Tullio Simoncini

This I find absolutely amazing. Italian oncologist, Dr. Tullio Simoncini claims to have cured various forms of cancer simply with a small number of injections with Bicarbonate of Soda.

And he produces numerous VIDEO testimonials to that effect. The principal video is taken at a conference for oncologists in the USA and is certainly worth watching.

But first, I suggest before you view the video, you read the lead article in the ‘Natural Cancer Cures’ web-site, which explains the rationale and procedure in some detail.

http://www.detailshere.com/naturalcancercure.htm

http://video.google.it/videoplay?docid=-598800713255508140&a

there is all so  alternitive treatments like  antioxidents having no sugar vitamins drinking green teas etc these do help hope this helps Ray