To Radiate Or Not To Radiate, That Is The Question...

My husband(age 36) has stage IV rectal cancer with liver mets. Officially, T2N2M1. He was misdianosed for at least 2 years, but that is another story. He has a colon resection on Oct. 21st, where they removed 8 inches of his colon and a golf ball section of his liver. They took out 45 nodes, 12 of which were cancerous. They have recommended FOLFOX, which we have no problem with as most of the lit says this is standard. (Though I am obviously concerned about how he will do on it, side effects etc.) But his oncologist recommended radiation as well, 5 weeks with a continuous daily drip of 5FU at the same time. Our problem is this. His surgeon told us radiation was a bad idea, too many possibilities of side effects, permanent damage. We have concerns about side effects as well, seeing as my husband is so young. The surgeon is concerned about his quality of life. So now we have 2 camps, the surgeon saying don't do radiation and the oncologist and radiation oncologist saying do it. We are going to see another oncologist to get a second opinion. Does anyone out there have any thoughts on radiation? Should we be concerned about permanent damage? Or are we making too big a deal out of this? We want him around as long as possible for our 10 and 8 year old daughters. Thanks in advance for your posts.

Well, my mom has stage 3, poorly differentiated rectal ca. She is 79, opted to have a sub-optimal surgery (transrectal resection) and no colostomy. She is on her last radiation treatment tomorrow(30 total) and has had 6 weeks of light chemo. She will begin her heavy chemo on 12-13(4 months). If you are worried about side effects, radiations side effects started after the third week. Extreme diarrhea - controlled with lots of immodium D and some surface burning (relieved with desitin and preparation H), and fatigue. I don't know what decision I would make in your shoes. Was it poorly, moderately or well differentiated? Poorly=fast growing, to well=slow growing. Hope some of this helps you!

I was 38 years old when diagnosed as a T3N1. I did radiation
combined with Xeloda and Campostar as part of a clinical trial.
I had a 6cm tumor that was reduced to microsopic residue and
only one lymph node.

At his age, he'll tolerate the radiation well but there are other
concerns such sterility. At my age, I probably wasn't going to
have another child (I'm a divorced, single mom with an 11 year
old) but I still resent the fact that decision was taken away from
me.

You'll have the benefit that you can freeze sperm but the
radiation does do some damage and he will be a risk for other
cancers down the road. In my opinion though, you can't worry
about what may happen down the road when you have a
serious cancer like this.

I will tell you I never got the skin burns (5 days a week for five
and a half weeks), he'll have to urinate all the time, ask for
sandostatin shots to help with the bowels, he'll be fatigued.

I want to be around to see my son drive a car, graduate from
high school, college, be a grandma...so I'm doing everything I
possibly can.

Stay strong!!