Are There Any New Treatments For Lung Cancer?

My name is Sherry and my mother, who is my best friend, has
non-small cell lung cancer, stage 3b. She has already gone through
chemo and radiation. The drugs she was given for the chemo were cisplatin and etoposide. How effective are these drugs and are there and better out there? I am so scared and so is she...dear God I can't lose her...please help me someone.

Hi Sherry, i'm so sorry to hear about your mom. My name is Laura and my brother Nat had nsclc which was diagnosed late february 2003. You may have read some of my messages throughout this site. Although Nat has passed away at the young age of 38 from this horrific disease that doesn't mean there is no help for your mom. My dear brother was on the drug Iressa which actually showed promise in people with advanced lung cancer, I just urge you to watch for the side effects. But as I always said, where there's a breath of life, there's always hope.

God Bless your mom and you for caring so much about her.

Thank you, Laura. I do have lots of hope but there are days that are so long and hard and I have to just stop and pray and tell God to please help me through it and to help my mom. I am so sorry about your brother. I have two brothers that are younger than myself and one of them lives with me. Neither of them help very much with my mom but I guess they can't handle seeing her like this everyday so I do it. Believe me it's very hard. Well, I thank you so very much for prayers, etc. and may God bless you and family with good health and a happy life.

God Bless You,

Sherry

Hi Sherry,
My Name is Anna and I'm taking care of my Husband Gus. Just wanted to let you know how bad I feel about your Mother. My Husband was diagnosed in Dec. of 2000 with SCLC. The Dr's. also only gave him 4 to 6 months. Here it is going on 3 yrs. Please don't ever give up. They were not able to remove the Tumor because it spread to his Lymph Nodes. He went through Chemo and Radiation. It did grow by 1cm in August of this year. Now he's on Iressa and since the last Scan it did not grow. We just have to keep on fighting. I know it's really tough to keep on going. This board has given me so much support. Please keep on writing and get all the strenght you need from all of these wonderful people. My best to you and your Mother. Hoping for a miracle for all. Take care, Anna

Hi Sherry,
I hope your mom is doing well. I know thatfor some reason or another, its up to us women to be the caregivers. Even though my youngest brother Paul cared deeply for Nat, it was up to me to take care of him, which i would do all over again if I could. Although I had some difficult times with Nat because he became sooooo needy and I wasn't accustomed to that, I am truly thankful that i was there for God to take him from my arms into those of my parents. I really believe that he's in a better place without further suffereing and he is still around me everyday taking care of me from heaven.

I also lost my mom almost 4 years ago and my dad went to be with her just 2 months after, niether were from cancer, my brother was this first on either side to have cancer. My mother was my best friend in the world and even though i lived with her, i called her several times a day. At that time when she passed away I thought there was absolutely no way that i would survive life without her so I can truly know exactly how yo feel. Please just be patient with her and I know that sometimes that may feel impossible, but later on you will appriciate it. I didn't have patience with my dad because i had a very difficult time dealing with the loss of my mom that I selfishly thought it was only happening to me and nobdy else. Then 6 weeks later he had a heart attack and was on a respirator for another 2 weeks until he too passed away. I thank God that I had those 2 weeks. I was able to appoligize to him.

I'm sorry to keep rambling on and on and giving you my depressing life story, but I just want you to appriciate every single day and to have more patience than I did, it means so much more in the long run. By the way, how is your mom handling all of this?

Also Anna is a great person (uses the name of August), she too will give you a lot of support.

God Bless

Laura, from the other Laura C. Anna first told me about the loss of Nat, and how upset she was for you. I am a bit late in responding, as our world has been topsy turvy- as you know it is always something. They took Ben off of chemo before he completed the whole course because they said it was doing no good. He is not a candidate for surgery and was put on Iressa, I must say our doctors weren't really that encouraging about it's proven record at this time ( I had resesarched it as it had been mentioned in a prior visit and I expected he might be given it after chemo) You and Anna had both mentioned it in your postings, so I was very apprenhensive when he was actually put on it. The doctors participated in some of the clinicals, and felt it was best suited as a maintenance program for tumors that had shrunk or remission- not progressive active tumors... We haven't been given many options. Things come at us from all directions, out of the blue, from well meaning friends, things you read, etc. And I ask God, how do you know what to persue for your loved one. Some could be flukes, others are too far away or too expensive to travel and stay away from home and responsibilitie- so then I feel like a dog- that if one doesn't have the money... they die? Didn't mean to get off on my state of mind, which has been less than I would hope to be. I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am over Nat, it was so apparent you were such a caring loving person to fight the battle with him and for him. It seems so unfair with what you had already experienced. I told someone earlier at how rough a time you were having it, and that it was a shame you didn't have your parents to support the both of you through this, and then I stopped short in my train of thought- Realizing, think how hard it would have been on them to have witnessed their child, Nat, suffer the way he did and to go before them??? That would have been so very cruel to them, so although you had to carry the load, I guess God knew you could do it and spared you parents in their lifetime that worry. You are right, they are together and I am sure you are blessed to have been from such a family that provided you the strength and loving nature you had to see you and Nat during such hard times. Know we each mourn with you, any loss is a reminder to us that we never know who's loved one may succumb to this disease. You provided us strength and admiration in your devotion. May God comfort you in the days ahead and reward you greatly for being who you are.
Laura C.

Sherry;
I sure don't know the answers, but I had a partial lobectomy last Dec., upper left lobe. So far, it seems to be gone with no signs of spread to other urgans. When my doctor said that it was operable I ran, not walked, to the nearest available operating date. I'm so glad my doctors were hearing what I was saying and acted aggressively. Good luck, God be with you !

Sandy

Hi Anna, It’s me Laura, Nat's sister. I have been avoiding coming to this site for selfish reasons (it hurts so bad), but I certainly haven’t forgotten all of the wonderful people. I think about you and your husband all of the time and finally got up the courage to come back into the message boards with tears in my eyes of course.

I also would like to thank you for all of your words of encouragement and all of the help that you have been to me, it really did help. You and your husband give hope that the doctors cannot control everything, after all they only gave him 6 months, and years later he is still fighting and will be fighting for years to come God willing.

So once again I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you've done for me, there's a great place in heaven for people like you who show such compassion for someone that you have never met, but impacted their lives so much.



God Bless

Hi Laura,
How wonderful of you to think about us since you have been through so much. I think about you and Nat so much with a broken heart. Especially with the Holidays ahead of us. I know you must miss Nat so much. Nat was so blessed that he had you for a care giver. Know that you did everything possible for Nat. He knew how much you loved him the way you cared for him. Gus is in the Hospital going on 3 weeks now. I was not able to wake him one morning and called the Paramedics. As you said, God willing he will pull through this again. This awful decease has touched so many wonderful people like you and Nat. A hard as it is, I'm hoping you will think about all of the good times you had together. You also helped us and gave us so much support that I really appreciated all you have done for us. Bless you and your Family. Love, Anna

Hi Anna. How's Gus doing? I was so sorry to hear he's in the hospital. I will pray for him and you both. The holidays are very difficult as you can imagine. We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving because it was Nat's 3 weeks anniversary and we weren't in any celebratory mood. Saturday was mom's 4 year anniversary in heaven so the Christams season has been hitting us hard. Eveen moreso this year, after all christmas is a time for family and the majority of my family is gone. My other brother and I decided not to celebrate for ourselves but we will celebrate for the sake of his daughter.

Please know that I am praying for both of you, Gus for the ability to keep fighting and you for the stregnth to help him fight. God Bless