CancerCompass message board discussion started by Tipipooh on 5/21/2007 http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,12233,0.htm Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ My husband was diagnosed with stage 2 colon cancer. Pathology found only 5 lymph nodes, which were located closest to the bowl, and are all negative. The oncologist is recommending chemo because of the lack of the number of the lymph nodes although most all the people with stage 2 do not need chemo. Is there anyone who had a similar experience? We are not sure if chemo is really needed in this situation or not.... Tipipooh Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT how old is your husband?  Is his health otherwise good?  How deep was his tumor?  A minimum of 12 LN are needed for staging.  I would also ask your oncologist what the benefit of chemo is.  I would say you could only improve survival by 5-10 %.  Is that benefit worth the weeks of chemo and its side effects?  Only you and your husband can answer that. Oncrx Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT Thank you so much for your quick reply. My husband is 53 years old and is an eye surgeon. He is very healthy and lean otherwise. Actually, the pathologist found 9 more LN yesterday, so he said there are 14 LN for total and all of them are negative.The tumor was 2.1cm, it penetrated muscular layer, going .5cm into the fat. There was a clear margin of 8cm of fat. It did not penetrate serosa. My husband is concerned about the side effects of chemo, especially neuropathy because of his occupation.  Do you think that it is not worth six month chemo in his case? We heard tahat the majority of people at stage 2 do not need chemo.... Tipipooh Tue, 22 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT thats excellant news because now you have an accurate stage.  The use of adjuvant chemo in stage II is debatable.  All you can do is weigh the risks vs the benefits.  I agree most people dont do it.  If you dont get chemo, be vigilant with followup.  I would say do biannual H&P and CEA and annual CT and colonoscopy. Oncrx Tue, 22 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT Thank you so much for being so helpful. Do you know if there are any good resources/specialists/cancer survivors we can check/talk to regarding this situation? We would like to gather as much information as we can to decide chemo.  Tipipooh Tue, 22 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT