Latest messages for CancerCompass discussion http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,37536,0.htm Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ Im glade he continues to do OK and hope he will form hear on in  you cant go wrong on tong ren it good stuff good luck Ray   jcr65566 Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT I never posted our recent good news since we were working out the rest of the treatment details. We got most recent PET/CT results last week and the lung mets resolved again. Here we are...dx as stage 4 esophageal cancer in late 2005/lung mets. 6 chemo/25 radiation at start followed by Ivor Lewis and lung resect.  2nd lung resect late 2006 positive.  8 more chemo in 2007/recurrence in both lungs after resect.   11 more chemo in 2008 with recurrence at lower dosage (all chemos were cisplatin, docetaxel and irinotecan). 5 chemos in 2009 (used EOX this time).We now stand at 30 chemos for EC with recurrent lung mets and are headed towards the 4th anniversary at the start of December. He is finishing his Xeloda so will be done with chemo by Thursday (I suspect the side effects will have him off it before then). He has had numerous chemo breaks, and we are delighted to be heading into another. He bounces back quickly once we stop Xeloda, so I anticipate he will be back to whatever is normal at this point very soon. They continued to be amazed by his resiliency with very tough chemo regimens, as well as the fact that we keep beating the mets into submission. I keep reminding them I tap my doll. We sweat results and then the oncologist says things like she totally expected to see him do this again. She gave him six months at the start and a few months ago said she expects we will do this for years. It's not easy, but we feel very blessed and thankful, and will take as much time as we can get out of it.  I posted this on the EC board, but wanted to share it here also since we still believe the reason we have been so successful in spite of the abyssmal survival rates has been our use of tong ren as a complement to traditional treatments. Although I know someone who is close to 6 years out with a similar dx, he has had 3-4 times as much traditional chemo. I haven't mentioned tong ren here for a while but know there is always an influx of new folks looking for alternatives. This has been viable for us. Saw my PCP this week. He was surprised my husband was still alive. I mentioned my doll and he said I was the second person in a week, then proceeded to explain it to the NP he was training (with a preface that she would have to leave her western medical mind at the door if she chose to go to guinea pig class).  We still see our original oncologist, but she moved, so we treat locally when he needs treatment. The recent regimen was done with a different oncologist following him through treatment and dealing with the day to day issues. She was very surprised by how unusual his response was...no low blood counts again, no residuals like neuropathy, kidney or heart problems, etc, and clean scans as opposed to a little shrinkage or holding stable which is a much more common response with EC, if you get any response at all. The original oncologist is getting to where she expects this of him, even though it is not the usual behavior of EC. Lots of info if you google tong ren or tom tam (created tong ren). tongrenhealer Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT