Hi all - The wait is over ! My final test (biopsy) for being a WW candidate came back all negative ! I am officially declared as complete response (for now) and moving onto a WW programme ! I get another chance at fighting the darn thing and preserving my rectum ! Thank you to all on this board and ...

Lastly, I have to go back on this thread and revisit what you guys are discussing (this "LE" - I assume it's local excision?). I clearly missed what this is. It sounds intriguing - like a compromise between LAR surgery and W&W? My people wouldn't even do a biopsy so I am interested......

Thank you so much for sharing about this study. I will have to ask my MSK surgeon about this study when I see him in May. Or before. Funny, given he told me when I saw him in February that salvage surgery is "typically" the same as original surgery. hi Lakeswim - just 3 months ago, my doc...

I"m not surprised about the HRT but I am surprised that your GYN won't Rx some vaginal estrogen cream. Yes, it does contain hormones, however, the levels your body absorbs via the vaginal route are SO small that most doctors don't consider it to be 'dangerous' to a female unless you have a STR...

Hi Miss Molly - Yes my gynae is definitely on the cautious side of anything related to hormonal medication. She did mention that HRT can stop when I reach the age of 50 and it's not a lifelong medication. Is it standard practice to also consider birth control pills for estrogen ? I will bring it up ...

Jolene, Just to clarify something -- my tumor was located 4.5 cm from the anal verge. Quite low, I think. My surgeon does have concerns - he has warned me about the possibility of having to go back for an ileostomy if I cannot heal or develop infection. He did see scarring and also some healthy loo...

I'm in a huge dilemma at the moment as I believed I will be making some major decisions next week ! Just did my sigmoid scope this morning and biopsy. Results should be out by Monday. So many thoughts going through my mind at the moment. It's gonna be a tough weekend wait ! The biopsy is now almost ...

I had a local excision in 2007 after a complete clinical response to chemoradiation. I'm not sure what 'side effects' your doctor is talking about. Yes, I had a slight amount of pain (mine was due to the fact that the instruments were pushed against my tailbone for the duration of the surgery and I...

Hi all... Quick update. Received my MRI and PET/CT results today. 1) MRI showed mostly fibrotic signals but there is a borderline/minimal restricted diffusion at the edge of the tumor which is ambiguous. The report concludes that residual tumour hence cannot be completely excluded based on this MRI....

Hi all, I have not posted in a while as I haven't been on the forum and haven't had much to report, although "no news is good news" when you are following the W&W protocol. But today I heard the words "you are as good as cured" from my oncologist :D :D :D I have recently had...

Hi Jolene, if your Dr could feel your tumor site it must have been very low, just like mine. My Dr told me she didn't take a sample for biopsy because it would have involved cutting into the sphincter muscles and that could have had a long term effect on the muscle function. She also said that when...

Jolene, Another thing they can do with the flex sig scope is take samples for biopsy. My surgeon did that and the absence of any remaining cancer cells in those samples helped make him even more comfortable with my decision to do a LE and adjuvant chemo. Although tbh he was already saying it seemed...

...... I can see why some people can’t handle the anxiety of W&W. It hasn’t been that long but I have my days (and nights!!) where I believe I’m stark-raving mad for not getting it out via surgery. (My local surgeon didn’t help when I last saw her when she said, “You’re a young woman and I’d ha...

Hi Jolene, It sounds like we are at similar stages in treatment - although I think you are a little ahead of me. I am at about 9 weeks post nCRT. ........ One thing I should say here is this: I was determined to go with a LE plus W&W or even just W&W (if my surgeon refused to perform the LE...

Jolene Have you considered consolidation chemotherapy which is done CRT first then chemotherapy and finally surgery if there is no CCR? Below are two links worth reading https://www.mskcc.org/clinical-updates/sidestepping-rectal-cancer-surgery-total-neoadjuvant-therapy https://www.spandidos-publica...