Treatments

My wife has stage 4 colon cancer. She had 6 inches of ascending colon removed.. The cancer went staight to the liver and she has numerous dots.. The good thing is it did not go into lymph nodes. She had here first session of chemo yesterday,, Folfox and erbatux.. Would love some info on survival rates etc.. She is 58 and very possitive.. She was active untill we saw bleeding in stool.. Thanks Ron

Ron,

 In the recent study by MD Anderson, Stage 4's diagnosed in 2004 survived for 30 months on average and 30% were alive after 5 years, but these are just averages and even though they are the most recent available they are 5 years old. They also don't take into account any new treatments that will be developed in the near future.  I would think that because your wife's cancer didn't get into the lymph node system, her odds are better than other Stage 4's who have lymph node involvement as well as metastises at a distant organ. 

I've been battling CRC since 2007.  Here's my advice.  Don't worry about the stats.  Focus on getting the most out of today.  The rest will take care of itself.

Jack

Jack, you took the words right out of my mouth (or fingers, since we are online).  Don't worry about "survival rates".  We are not percentages.  Each person reacts differently to treatment.  Have a friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer about 25 years ago.  Had surgery, but opted out of chemo.  She is still alive and well. 

A positive outlook can make a huge difference in some cases.  So, your wife should do what she enjoys, and keep life as normal as possible. 

Good luck to your wife. 

It is easy to get caught up in the survival rate percentage "crap" remember fear is  always associated with something that has not happened yet.  Is your wife a statistic no she is a wonderful amazing person and that is what you should be focusing on.  My husbands oncologist told me the "averages" my answer to him is my husband is not an "average man", he is incredible.

Rod has colon cancer which has spread to his peritoneum, rare, aggressive all the things we do not want to hear, but he is here now, is functioning relatively normally and we have time and life and where there is time and life we have "hope" God Bless x

FYI

I was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer with mets to the liver in July of 04.  I've been without disease since September of '04.  I stopped all treatment in June of '05

Ron,

Sorry to hear about your wife.

I was diagnosed with stage IV CRC in 2005. I received FOLFOX with Avastin -- so your wife's treatment sounds very similar. One thing to perhaps ask the oncologist is: has your wife's tumor been tested for a mutation of the KRAS gene. Recent studies have shown that Erbitux is not particulary effective if the KRAS gene has mutated. If the KRAS gene is normal then Erbitux can be quite effective.

Keep a positive attitude -- CRC can be beaten.

Best of luck, Brian

 

On 7/1/2009 Castrol wrote:

My wife has stage 4 colon cancer. She had 6 inches of ascending colon removed.. The cancer went staight to the liver and she has numerous dots.. The good thing is it did not go into lymph nodes. She had here first session of chemo yesterday,, Folfox and erbatux.. Would love some info on survival rates etc.. She is 58 and very possitive.. She was active untill we saw bleeding in stool.. Thanks Ron

Castrol,

 I am sorry to hear about your wife's illness.  I, too, have stage 4 cancer with metastasis to the lungs and a number of nodes.  Mine was also the ascending colon.  FOLFOX is the first line treatment for colon cancer usually followed by FOLFURI. 

I would urge you NOT to focus on survival rates.  I was diagnosed in February 2006 and in my 4th year of fighting this disease.  I have been told by doctors on a number of occasions throughout that 3 1/2 year period that I was looking at 3-6 months.  I keep on chugging along with varying types of treatment.  Every person is different, responds differently to the treatments, has a different mental outlook, etc.

I am not a physician and I encourage you and your wife to discuss the blood in her stool with her oncologist.  Yet, I have encountered that issue a number of times.  The chemo your wife is taking are potent drugs and can cause inflamation in the bowel.  It is not uncommon for me to have red blood in my stool....sometimes with drops into the toilet.  I have been told by my oncologist it is better the blood is red than if it were brown/black. 

A couple of tricks.  Try to keep the stool soft as this will cause less stress on the bowel tissue.  Also, sounds crazy but I find if I lean my buttocks onto one 'cheek' while I am having a bowel movement it puts less pressure on the internals of my bowel and less likely that I have blood.  Not the most pleasant of subjects but everyone on this website is looking for support and/or help.

I wish you and your wife the best and feel free to shoot me a response with any other questions.

 

On 7/3/2009 GuyGruen wrote:

 

On 7/1/2009 Castrol wrote:

My wife has stage 4 colon cancer. She had 6 inches of ascending colon removed.. The cancer went staight to the liver and she has numerous dots.. The good thing is it did not go into lymph nodes. She had here first session of chemo yesterday,, Folfox and erbatux.. Would love some info on survival rates etc.. She is 58 and very possitive.. She was active untill we saw bleeding in stool.. Thanks Ron

Castrol,

 I am sorry to hear about your wife's illness.  I, too, have stage 4 cancer with metastasis to the lungs and a number of nodes.  Mine was also the ascending colon.  FOLFOX is the first line treatment for colon cancer usually followed by FOLFURI. 

I would urge you NOT to focus on survival rates.  I was diagnosed in February 2006 and in my 4th year of fighting this disease.  I have been told by doctors on a number of occasions throughout that 3 1/2 year period that I was looking at 3-6 months.  I keep on chugging along with varying types of treatment.  Every person is different, responds differently to the treatments, has a different mental outlook, etc.

I am not a physician and I encourage you and your wife to discuss the blood in her stool with her oncologist.  Yet, I have encountered that issue a number of times.  The chemo your wife is taking are potent drugs and can cause inflamation in the bowel.  It is not uncommon for me to have red blood in my stool....sometimes with drops into the toilet.  I have been told by my oncologist it is better the blood is red than if it were brown/black. 

A couple of tricks.  Try to keep the stool soft as this will cause less stress on the bowel tissue.  Also, sounds crazy but I find if I lean my buttocks onto one 'cheek' while I am having a bowel movement it puts less pressure on the internals of my bowel and less likely that I have blood.  Not the most pleasant of subjects but everyone on this website is looking for support and/or help.

I wish you and your wife the best and feel free to shoot me a response with any other questions.

hello

 i am new to this forum and i am from greece

my father has stage iv colon cancer with mets to the lungs and lymph node lession at his peritoneal area, he is 60 years old

he was diagnosed at august 2008

he was in folfox with erbitux but it didn't helped him a lot

after he took folfiri plus avastin and he was 7-8 months in remission

yesterday after a month of his last infusion with folfiri he had the ct scans and the disease is starting again to progress

i am again in panic and i am afraid that now there isn't anything out there to stop this progression

i am trying not to loose my mind and stay calm but it's very difficult for me

after seeing your message i feel that maybe there is hope

if you can tell me with what drugs you ve been able to fight it for so many years it would be a great help for me because i live in greece and i don't have all the information about the new drugs and our onc is a little conservative and i understand that now my father after progressing with folfiri and avastin he doesn't have a lot of options

please help me

thanks a lot 

 

 

 

On 7/4/2009 ginsec wrote:

 

On 7/3/2009 GuyGruen wrote:

 

On 7/1/2009 Castrol wrote:

My wife has stage 4 colon cancer. She had 6 inches of ascending colon removed.. The cancer went staight to the liver and she has numerous dots.. The good thing is it did not go into lymph nodes. She had here first session of chemo yesterday,, Folfox and erbatux.. Would love some info on survival rates etc.. She is 58 and very possitive.. She was active untill we saw bleeding in stool.. Thanks Castrol,

 I am sorry to hear about your wife's illness.  I, too, have stage 4 cancer with metastasis to the lungs and a number of nodes.  Mine was also the ascending colon.  FOLFOX is the first line treatment for colon cancer usually followed by FOLFURI. 

I would urge you NOT to focus on survival rates.  I was diagnosed in February 2006 and in my 4th year of fighting this disease.  I have been told by doctors on a number of occasions throughout that 3 1/2 year period that I was looking at 3-6 months.  I keep on chugging along with varying types of treatment.  Every person is different, responds differently to the treatments, has a different mental outlook, etc.

I am not a physician and I encourage you and your wife to discuss the blood in her stool with her oncologist.  Yet, I have encountered that issue a number of times.  The chemo your wife is taking are potent drugs and can cause inflamation in the bowel.  It is not uncommon for me to have red blood in my stool....sometimes with drops into the toilet.  I have been told by my oncologist it is better the blood is red than if it were brown/black. 

A couple of tricks.  Try to keep the stool soft as this will cause less stress on the bowel tissue.  Also, sounds crazy but I find if I lean my buttocks onto one 'cheek' while I am having a bowel movement it puts less pressure on the internals of my bowel and less likely that I have blood.  Not the most pleasant of subjects but everyone on this website is looking for support and/or help.

I wish you and your wife the best and feel free to shoot me a response with any other questions.

hello

 i am new to this forum and i am from greece

my father has stage iv colon cancer with mets to the lungs and lymph node lession at his peritoneal area, he is 60 years old

he was diagnosed at august 2008

he was in folfox with erbitux but it didn't helped him a lot

after he took folfiri plus avastin and he was 7-8 months in remission

yesterday after a month of his last infusion with folfiri he had the ct scans and the disease is starting again to progress

i am again in panic and i am afraid that now there isn't anything out there to stop this progression

i am trying not to loose my mind and stay calm but it's very difficult for me

after seeing your message i feel that maybe there is hope

if you can tell me with what drugs you ve been able to fight it for so many years it would be a great help for me because i live in greece and i don't have all the information about the new drugs and our onc is a little conservative and i understand that now my father after progressing with folfiri and avastin he doesn't have a lot of options

please help me

thanks a lot 

 

 

 

Ginsec,

I can understand your great concern for your dad.  He is lucky to have someone that cares so much.  If there is one thing I have learned during my years living with cancer, it is a true roller coaster ride.  There have been times where I literally thought I would not physically survive another month and all of a sudden I started getting a response to a treatment.  A mindset that I suggest to many people is to think of life in blocks of 3-6 month periods of time.  Looking at 'survival' over 10 years, etc may seem out of reach, yet possibly attainable.  Short term goals are always easier to achieve.  I can only say that this has worked for me from a psychological perspective.

You need to communicate effecitvely with your dad's oncologist about having an open mind to chemo protocols that are not traditionally used for colon cancer.  For a number of months I took Gemzar with Avastin and leukovorin.  Gemzar is a drug that is usually used with pancreatic cancer but there was a study where people got a good response.  While my response with the Gemzar was for about a 6 month period, the side effects were very minimal...and, my tumor markers and PET showed real improvement during that time.

Also, some of the protocols I have been on have been a combination of the drugs from FOLFOX or FOLFURI, or used at varying times.  For example, I am presently taking Oxaliplatin, Xeloda (pill form of 5FU) and avastin.  This is really nothing more than the FOLFOX treatment but I haven't had this treatment in over two years and the belief is the cancer is responding due to my body not being exposed to it for that period.  I am fully aware that, at some time, the response may wane.  But that, again, goes back to me looking at life in shorter blocks of time.  Enjoy the good but have some plan for when the roller coaster starts to head back down hill.

There is a significant cancer conference being held in the U.S. this month (July).  My oncologist, who is very proactive in newer treatments, is attending the conference.  Feel free to save my information and shoot me an email in a few weeks and I'll let you know if anything significant is expected to be released or if there have been some further studies showing good responses.

 My best to you and your family,

Guy

 

On 7/5/2009 GuyGruen wrote:

 

On 7/4/2009 ginsec wrote:

 

On 7/3/2009 GuyGruen wrote:

 

On 7/1/2009 Castrol wrote:

My wife has stage 4 colon cancer. She had 6 inches of ascending colon removed.. The cancer went staight to the liver and she has numerous dots.. The good thing is it did not go into lymph nodes. She had here first session of chemo yesterday,, Folfox and erbatux.. Would love some info on survival rates etc.. She is 58 and very possitive.. She was active untill we saw bleeding in stool.. Thanks Castrol,

 I am sorry to hear about your wife's illness.  I, too, have stage 4 cancer with metastasis to the lungs and a number of nodes.  Mine was also the ascending colon.  FOLFOX is the first line treatment for colon cancer usually followed by FOLFURI. 

I would urge you NOT to focus on survival rates.  I was diagnosed in February 2006 and in my 4th year of fighting this disease.  I have been told by doctors on a number of occasions throughout that 3 1/2 year period that I was looking at 3-6 months.  I keep on chugging along with varying types of treatment.  Every person is different, responds differently to the treatments, has a different mental outlook, etc.

I am not a physician and I encourage you and your wife to discuss the blood in her stool with her oncologist.  Yet, I have encountered that issue a number of times.  The chemo your wife is taking are potent drugs and can cause inflamation in the bowel.  It is not uncommon for me to have red blood in my stool....sometimes with drops into the toilet.  I have been told by my oncologist it is better the blood is red than if it were brown/black. 

A couple of tricks.  Try to keep the stool soft as this will cause less stress on the bowel tissue.  Also, sounds crazy but I find if I lean my buttocks onto one 'cheek' while I am having a bowel movement it puts less pressure on the internals of my bowel and less likely that I have blood.  Not the most pleasant of subjects but everyone on this website is looking for support and/or help.

I wish you and your wife the best and feel free to shoot me a response with any other questions.

hello

 i am new to this forum and i am from greece

my father has stage iv colon cancer with mets to the lungs and lymph node lession at his peritoneal area, he is 60 years old

he was diagnosed at august 2008

he was in folfox with erbitux but it didn't helped him a lot

after he took folfiri plus avastin and he was 7-8 months in remission

yesterday after a month of his last infusion with folfiri he had the ct scans and the disease is starting again to progress

i am again in panic and i am afraid that now there isn't anything out there to stop this progression

i am trying not to loose my mind and stay calm but it's very difficult for me

after seeing your message i feel that maybe there is hope

if you can tell me with what drugs you ve been able to fight it for so many years it would be a great help for me because i live in greece and i don't have all the information about the new drugs and our onc is a little conservative and i understand that now my father after progressing with folfiri and avastin he doesn't have a lot of options

please help me

thanks a lot 

 

 

 

Ginsec,

I can understand your great concern for your dad.  He is lucky to have someone that cares so much.  If there is one thing I have learned during my years living with cancer, it is a true roller coaster ride.  There have been times where I literally thought I would not physically survive another month and all of a sudden I started getting a response to a treatment.  A mindset that I suggest to many people is to think of life in blocks of 3-6 month periods of time.  Looking at 'survival' over 10 years, etc may seem out of reach, yet possibly attainable.  Short term goals are always easier to achieve.  I can only say that this has worked for me from a psychological perspective.

You need to communicate effecitvely with your dad's oncologist about having an open mind to chemo protocols that are not traditionally used for colon cancer.  For a number of months I took Gemzar with Avastin and leukovorin.  Gemzar is a drug that is usually used with pancreatic cancer but there was a study where people got a good response.  While my response with the Gemzar was for about a 6 month period, the side effects were very minimal...and, my tumor markers and PET showed real improvement during that time.

Also, some of the protocols I have been on have been a combination of the drugs from FOLFOX or FOLFURI, or used at varying times.  For example, I am presently taking Oxaliplatin, Xeloda (pill form of 5FU) and avastin.  This is really nothing more than the FOLFOX treatment but I haven't had this treatment in over two years and the belief is the cancer is responding due to my body not being exposed to it for that period.  I am fully aware that, at some time, the response may wane.  But that, again, goes back to me looking at life in shorter blocks of time.  Enjoy the good but have some plan for when the roller coaster starts to head back down hill.

There is a significant cancer conference being held in the U.S. this month (July).  My oncologist, who is very proactive in newer treatments, is attending the conference.  Feel free to save my information and shoot me an email in a few weeks and I'll let you know if anything significant is expected to be released or if there have been some further studies showing good responses.

 My best to you and your family,

Guy

 

Thanks Guy

Please if you learn something encouraging about new treatments let me now because our onc isn't so proactive in newer treatments