On 7/7/2008
Suinoregon wrote:
I'm cross-posting this in hopes of getting more replies....
Hi,
My mom has Stage 4 rectal cancer, spread to her lungs last
fall. We now have 3 well-respected surgeons willing to do surgery to
remove 11 nodules from both sides of her lungs. But other docs say
there are no studies that show that it will help prolong her life and
at least one oncologist said she would not have her mother go through
the surgery.
Our family is wrestling with what to do. We don't
want her to suffer needless pain from the surgery but we want every
possible chance at saving her. She has two new grandbabies.
Has
anyone else been in a similar situation and decided to go for surgery?
Some doctors are surprised to hear the surgeons are willing to operate.
Do surgeons just want to cut? Why are we getting such different answers
from different doctors?
My mom is on Xeloda and Avastin, which have greatly improved her quality of life.
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Su
Su,
I would be curious on how they were going to do this. 11 Nodules in both lungs are quite a few. If it was just one tumor then I can see where they would take a portion of one lung to get it but the lungs are the most difficult to operate on because unlike the liver, they do not grow back. I have even heard that doctors have a hard time even seeing the tumors when they operate on the lungs and sometimes take pieces of lung tissue out that don't even contain the tumors. So I am very caution in thinking that they can do this. Do you know any details on what kind of procedure they are doing? I have been told that whenever you have multiple nodules then surgery is ruled out of they are in the lungs. Let me know details because if they can do this then I would like some info for myself. Thanks,
Jeff