CancerCompass message board discussion started by Brobob on 3/2/2007 http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,10012,0.htm Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ My brother just diag.  Has 4 cm at bottom of esophagous.  Is that considered large.  I know will have further testing for staging but soo much trouble swallowing.  Brobob Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT So sorry to hear about your brother.  I'm not sure if 4cm is considered large or not.  I can tell you a bit about what my mom is going thru though.They have not told us an actual letter/ number staging diagnosis for her. In my opinion, it doesn't really matter all that much. Anyway, in mid Jan. she was diagnosed with a tumor the "size of an orange" where her stomach and esph. meet.  She was unable to swallow at that time.  A few lymph nodes are affected, as well as  a spot on her lung that they are unsure of what it is (might be mets EC or could be lung cancer or could be something else).  ]They started chemo and rad in early Feb. After 1/2 round of chemo and 4 rad treatments she began to swallow her saliva.  She had now had 18 rounds of rad and is getting ready for her 2nd round of chemo next week. As of yesterday she had worked her way up to eating mashed potatoes!  Considering where she started, that is great!  Her last solid food was on Christmas day. She is on a feeding tube, and has been since her dx in mid Jan.  She would have starved to death without it.  Hopefully soon she'll be off it.  She had a love hate relationship with it. LOLI wish your family the best of luck fighting this ugly beast.  Please keep us posted.  2cats Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT Brobob,Sorry to hear of the dx given to your brother. As far as the 4cm is concerned I can't really say that I know if it is big or not, but I can tell you that my husband's was about 5cm when he was dx in Sept.  After the dx he started his chemotherapy without radiation.  He did 9 intense weeks of chemo and then had another PET scan that showed nothing.  The tumor had shrunk so small it wasn't detected on the scan.  He actually just had surgery on the 26th and there was nothing else anywhere around the esophagus.  There was still a tumor there which they took out, but we found this to be great news.  My husband is doing well.  He is such a strong man and all he wants is to get back home to our kids.  I don't know if I helped you at all, but my husband has done well with his fight so far.  Good luck to your brother and family.-Strong4Him Strong4him Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT Generally they do chemo radiation, if the tumor is an Adeno carcinoma then surgery is more important for local control.  Scca is a toss up but generally all three are combined if possible. Witchdoctor Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT