The doctors tend to give patients RELATIVE benefit as opposed to ACTUAL benefit. What I am stating is that the ACTUAL benefit of Oxi...IN THE STAGE II scenario with no negative prognostic factors.....is a small 2 -3%. When I was going through chemo, my onc recommended against the oxi....based on the...

The Xeloda (pills) or the infused 5FU (if you chose to go that route) is the drug that does MOST of the work anyway. For a stage II, studies have shown that the oxi adds only an extra 2-3%...IMO, not enough to warrant taking it. You have to make that decision.

That was my point....I think it is the OXI that is the problem....not the Xeloda. I'm surprised that the onc didn't suggest just doing the Xeloda or 5FU.

I was a stage IIA...rectal cancer and I did chemo. Now, I will say that I did NOT do the oxi. Personally, I don't know what your onc is talking about that XELOX is brutal. He may be referring to the fact that with XELOX being given it every THREE weeks as opposed to every TWO weeks with Folfox, the ...

Crow23.. Sorry for the confusion. Let me try and explain it better. Because rectal cancer most oftentimes has some form of NEOADJUVANT treatment (before surgery), a CLINICAL staging is first done based solely on the tests (EUS, MRI/CT). Even after surgery, there is no definitive way to know how many...

Hello and welcome to our board. First of all....take a breath and try to relax. I understand that you want to be involved, however, unless your father is incapable of making his own decisions, the doctors may very well not speak to you without his permission. I could be over analyzing your response....

Thank you for the kind words. I actually liked my oncologist....specially because he was able to think 'outside of the box'. It was the surgeons that I saw that I really didnt like. They were never willing to deviate from the 'standard of care ' until I met my FINAL surgeon. When my own onc was diag...

Like I've always said....I was more than willing to the surveillance in exchange for the less radical surgery. I just never envisioned 13 years of it!! Glad that that final test is now gone from my repertoire. While I would, of course, prefer the 10 year scope plan (who wouldn't???), I'm fine with t...

Thirteen years ago, I chose a different path for my rectal cancer treatment. Instead of the LAR surgery, I chose to undergo a full thickness transanal excision preceded by chemoradiation and chemo. When I finally convinced my surgeon that I was aware that my choice was against the 'standard of care'...

Unless you have a family history of colorectal cancer OR colorectal polyps, then it is usually every 10 years. While most people know if there is a family history of cancer, most do NOT know if their family members have had polyps....benign or precancerous. Unfortunately, that isn't something that m...

I am certainly no expert (or even mildly informative about this) but remember that what you read in the posted article is for people with PRIMARY LIVER CANCER That is NOT the same as someone having liver mets from another cancer. You need to remember that. You can't apply the statistics for someone ...

I'm so glad to see you back again, posting this story. It truly is amazing!

Congratulations on 15 years and here's hoping you have another 15 or more years to continue to celebrate!

Now that sounds like a GREAT idea!

I'm all for it. ONE week of celebrations, holidays and just FUN!

Although not a Canadian...here's wishing all Canadians a wonderful and safe HAPPY CANADA DAY!

I was in Victoria once on July 1st and saw some awesome fireworks. Enjoy!

I was given Questran for severe diarrhea after gall bladder removal. I've mentioned it to a few people with LAR, their docs have Rx'd it and they've had good results with it. You have to tweak the dosage....too much and you're super constipated. Not enough and it doesn't do the job. I know one perso...