My mom was diagnosed in August of 2005. There was no surgery to perform on her. She had felt awful for 8 months and was not diagnosed right away.
After her first 6 months of chemo her CA 125 was down and went without chemo for about 5 months. After that she had about 6 different types of chemo all together. None of the chemos seemed to help. She aways had fluid removed from the outside of her lungs…4-6 liters at a time. Seems like it was happening faster and faster. Then last Feb. she started to fill up in her abdomen area too. They had to rotate which spot they took the fluid from. Seems like the more often you drain the faster the faster it builds but they have to have it done…
So to answer your question no it can’t be stopped and it will become more frequent. This cancer has no cure yet.
It is a very mean cancer and it does show how strong mom is. It was a very hard way to watch mom pass away. My mom passed away Memorial weekend this year (2007).
I'm with whomever suggested we need to raise awareness of PPC. It is so closely related to one type of ovarian cancer... so maybe we could team up with them...