Husband has cancer

Help!

12-1/2 yrs. ago my husband had colon rectal cancer in five of 7 lymph nodes, had surgery to remove 2 ft. of colon and was in stage III.  In May of 09 he went to the doctor for his regular physical and they discovered microscopic blood in his urne.  From there all hell broke loose.  He had an ultrasound, and then a CT scan with and without contrast to find that he has a 4" mass on his liver and a small lower lobe mass on his lung.  They did a biopsy of his liver and the special strain showed the gastro  markers for the cancer.  They did a colonoscopy again ( had one done in Oct 08 and it was fine), and an endioscopy and found nothing.  They did a PET scan  and confirmed the liver and lung but have been unable to find the primary site.  We went to the Univ of Chicago Unknown primary site doctors and they can only make a guess as to the primary.  They feel that after 12-1/2 yrs. there is a remote possibility of colon cancer but feel stronger that it is lung cancer or bile duct cancer.  It is now August. 18 and he may finally be starting chemo this week.  But, they are guessing and making their best shot.  

Has anyone else gone through something similar to this?  We feel as if we are in this nightmare and tossing a coin on what will be right or wrong for his life.  Of course, it is stage IV because it has mestatisized to the lung and liver.  Thanks  DarArt 

 

 

Hi Its so important that your husband gets on chemo as soon as possible, so push hard for this, also you can ask for the report of cat scans etc and do you know what his CEA LEVEL is?? Cea is a marker to see how much the cancer has grown... normal being 1 to 3.... be very proactive in all you do and never ever give up,,, Praying Gods Blessings and Healings on your Husband ,,, BEST WISHES ROB

Thanks Rob, I do have a copy of all his tests.  His CEA level was at 4.3 after two tests.  What we found out is that he never ran a very high CEA level even when he had the first cancer.  In fact, his CEA level with the colon rectal stage  III cancer 12-1/2 years ago was 3.  Apparently, his body just doesn't make alot of CEA's.  Everything is in God's hands and we continue to pray alot. 

Hi,

I'm sorry about your husband. My husband also has recurrent rectal stage 4. I think all recurrent cancer is stage 4 but I'm not sure about that. In our and yours it is. My husband also has never had a high CEA seems to be somewhat common with rectal. They should be able to tell if your husbands is recurrent by the path report during the original surgery compared to a new path report. If you are having a biopsy this time. There are loads of new chemo drugs that your husband will probably do great on. Especially since it was gone for so long. I know that rectal tends to go to the lungs and liver so my bet would be it's recurrent rather then a new cancer. Either way as I said there are so many more chemo available now.

Good Luck and let us know what you find out.