can anyone help

Hi,

I,m looking for some answers, please if there is anyone out there who can help please reply.

a very close family member has been diagnosed with signet cell stomach cancer stage 4 that has spread to her ovary. She has been in pain since October 07 in and out of hospital and even had 4 999 calls. Her own GP had never examined her after going to him with her complaint of this pain in the left side of her upper back. She is a 22 year old female in uni and has a two year old son.

She was told in the hospital over the last year that the pain was all in her head. I could go on and on about the way she was disbelieved but my concern is for her now. She paid to see a chiropractor who gave her a letter to take to her own GP, on that day a lo-com doctor was at the surgery, he examined her and told her she was 28wks pregnant. He sent her to the local hospital for a blood test which came back negative, she was then sent for a scan to the same hospital she had been admitted to over and over, they confirmed there was something there that was the size of a 28wk fetus but not a baby...it was a tumor.

They removed the tumor, one ovary a slice of the other ovary the fallopian tube some abnormal looking marks on the omentum. We waited for the results which came back as cancer.

Further appointments with doctors and oncologists have confirmed that these areas were all secondary cancers and the primary is signet cell cancer on the back of the stomach wall where there is a thickening, that's what might be causing her upper back pain.

She spoke deeply with her oncologist who was truthful with her, saying also that chemo would work for one year. She had her first round of chemo which knocked her sideways, they could not control her vomiting or pain, the chemo is ecx, she can not take tablets orally every thing has to be injected, this round was stopped until they could get the symptoms under control.

Tomorrow she is going in to hospital where they will give her all her chemo in drip form and will keep her in to monitor her, which we are all grateful for because she had such bad side effects last time.

I have so many questions i want to ask like how do they know its stomach cancer when she has had no scans of her stomach and the camera they used to check her stomach in the first hospital told her that the stomach was clear.

Please if anyone has had this cancer or a loved one who has had this cancer please reply to me. She is a strong girl and has always been a fighter, we has a family pray to the lord every night and feel its only the lord who can help us now has so many doctors failed. I know i carry a lot of anger with my hurt but since searching the Internet she had so many signs a year ago and they were ignored. If anyone has any suggestions or advice i would be so thankful for you reply x

They can tell what type of cancer it is from the tissue that they removed.  Most of the time, a pathologist can look at that tissue and determine the primary site of the cancer because cancerous cells can duplicate and spread elsewhere in the body, but their makeup is still the same which tells them the site of origin.  My dad's cancer first appeared as a lump on the side of his neck.  They took a biopsy and determined it was stomach cancer that had already spread to his lymph nodes.  I'm sorry your friend has already gone through so much.  There is no easy way around this thing.  You need to try your best to get through it and keep hoping and praying.  There are success stories out there.  I hope your friend is one of them.  Rosemarie.

Hi,

Thank you so much for your reply, just a little remark answers so many questions.

The doctor said the turmor had been growing for months, do you know how this kind of cancer travels from the stomach to the ovary, and would all the stomach be affected or just the outer layers?

They have told her that she will not be able to have surgery, yet i read of so many who have had part of the stomach cut away?

How is your dad, many thanks

ann

 

 

On 12/2/2008 annchamb wrote:

Hi,

Thank you so much for your reply, just a little remark answers so many questions.

The doctor said the turmor had been growing for months, do you know how this kind of cancer travels from the stomach to the ovary, and would all the stomach be affected or just the outer layers?

They have told her that she will not be able to have surgery, yet i read of so many who have had part of the stomach cut away?

How is your dad, many thanks

ann

 

 

Hi Ann,

The way I understand it, in order for the stomach cancer to have spread to a distant organ, it had to have penetrated through the stomach layers.  Those cancer cells that left the stomach could travel anywhere in the body. 

Again, I'm not a clinical person, but I believe that if it has traveled beyond the stomach - or beyond an organ that might be adjacent to the stomach, surgery would not help because you don't know where those cancerous cells have traveled to --- they're not in a confined area.  As a result, you need to use chemotherapy which is more of a systemic attack on the cancer - as opposed to a surgery which could hope to eliminate the cancer that is in a specific area. 

You will find people who have been very successful with chemotherapy approaches on this site.  My dad was a very active 84 year old when he was diagnosed last December.  He did fairly well with the chemo for about 5 months, but then succumbed to the disease in late June.  I think younger individuals with stomach cancer tend to fare better.  I'll keep you and your family member in my thoughts and prayers. 

Rosemarie

cancer also spreads thru the lymph nodes which go to other organs.  lymph nodes are everywhere in our body

Dear Rosemarie,

Thank You so much for your reply, firstly my heart goes out to you and your family. I appreciate what you have told me and you have answered many of my questions which i thank you for.

Having no knowledge of this disease frustrates me but you have explained the mixed up questions i have had in my head.

She looked so well today going in to hospital and has called me tonight with such a strong mind. She is a little fighter and in some ways she's stronger than the whole family. She has now got her wigs ready, and has prepared herself for round 2 of chemo.

I will keep you posted, thank you so much

Ann

 

Ann-  I am so sorry to hear about your friend.  I sympathize with you completely and reading your story reminded me of mine.  My younger sister was just diagnosed with the same thing...signet cell carcinoma that started in the stomach.  She also had symptoms for the past year and had been to several doctors and even hospital who misdiagnosed her.   They tried to do surgery on her to remove the cancer but it was up against her portal vein so much that they couldn't remove it without leaving a lot of it behind so she is now on chemotherapy.

This is very painful for me to deal with as I am sure it is for everyone else.  I work at an oncologist office so I see this type of thing every day and now to see my sister there as a patient is so hard.   

Be positive for your friend.  Research all you can to keep up to date on the latest treatments.  Don't be afraid to urge her to get 2nd or 3rd opinions if necessary.  Make sure they do regular scans to see if the chemo is working.  If not, she may need to change drugs.  Help her to eat healthy. I find that hard to do with my sister as she has no appetite a lot. 

Good luck and may God heal her.

Tracy