New member had colonoscopy today ? About findings

[MJB9]

Today I had my first colonoscopy done due to blood in my stool. I have questions about the result which got sent off for a biopsy.

1) The mass was estimated to be 3cm, is this considered a large or small mass

2) The report stated the the mass was finger length inside my rectum,

3) The diagnosis was listed as "hard likely malignant"


Has anyone experienced any condition like this ? What is the next step after the biopsy results ?

Any information would be greatly appreciated, thanks for your time

[CRguy]

Welcome to the best place on Earth ( =internet !) if you need to be here for CRC !
SORRY you've had to join us

Did you read my medical records ?????? ....'cos .......
my history when I started, is just about what you have stated for yourself.

Next step will be a consultation with your doctors ( likely medical oncologist, surgeon and radiation oncologist, scans, blood tests.... ) ... Yes I know, sounds kind of overwhelming ... but you need to get all the info into the hands of the folks who you may need to work with, to take care of the mass they found.

I have been around 7 years ( six years on this forum ) dealing with all of this stuff ...SO :
Plan to take it a step at a time, check in here for feedback and friendly info AND NEVER FORGET :

there may well be a disease inside a person ... BUTT we are all about the PERSON inside the disease

Best wishes moving forward
Call on us anytime
Cheers and Harmony
CRguy

[janklo]

It would help too if we knew your age, sex, family history. Just remember there are a lot of steps now. Possibly a PET scan, more tests, meet with an oncologist. Sometimes radiation before surgery. Or chemo before surgery. Just take a breath, get a notebook and keep copies of all your reports and lab tests. Take notes then come ask questions here. It will be ok.

[MJB9]

Sorry this is all new to me

I am a 43 year old male with no family history

Thank you both CRguy and janklo for your posts! So much info and trying to figure this out

[gtownguy]

Yes, my "journey" started out pretty much the same way. Had a colonoscopy on a Tues, GI doctor said "it looks malignant", and the biopsy confirmed that on Fri. A couple of weeks later I had an ultrasound which showed some lymph node involvement then followed up with both a CT scan and a PET scan.

The next step was getting appointments with an oncology radiologist (to set up radiation treatment), an oncologist (to start on chemo), and a colorectal surgeon (to discuss the tumor removal).

My hospital has a woman called a "nurse navigator" and she was a huge help in scheduling all these appointments and helping me digest all this new information. I'd definitely ask if there's someone like that at your treatment facility. Best of luck to you.

[skypup]

Hi MJ, welcome and sorry you find yourself here.

My tumor was in the same place and a bit larger, but size has relatively little to do with how serious CRC is, so don't worry on that front. Like others have said, you'll likely be overwhelmed with the "blur" of the medical machine for a while. I wrote down questions as I thought of them so I wouldn't forget to ask the docs. I also had a friend who is really good with taking notes (she's a reporter) go with me to my initial appointments because it was absolutely amazing what I would lose after leaving. I've heard others say this, too.

I would caution you to avoid Dr. Google for now; wait until you have the basic facts. Come here for support and info. And remember to breathe! I found that I had to rely on a bit of ambien to straighten out my sleep cycle in those stressful early days, and I've never been a medicine taker. But do what you need to do to stay strong.

We are all hoping that you get great news -- that it's not cancer -- or really good news -- that if it is, you caught it early.

Please let us know how you are doing.

Oh, are you in a big city with good medical resources?

[MJB9]

gtownguy and Skypup

Thank you for sharing your experiences with me, it is greatly appreciated

A few additional question, I have been referred to a colorectal surgeon already, in your cases surgery was not the first option, why was that ? I get each incident and person is different, but was surgery the first option for both of you and then changed to other treatment options ?

This is such a whirlwind for me, thanks to everyone for their time, experiences and words of encouragement

[kellywin]

I'll chime in here even though I'm not gtownguy or Skypup. Typically with rectal cancer, we get radiation first, to shrink the tumor and (hope) to prevent a local recurrence (I'm not sure if this is only for cases with lymph node involvement or not - hopefully someone else can chime in). In my case, I had already been referred to the colo-rectal surgeon because of the bleeding, he did my colonoscopy and when it was over pretty much laid it out that it was cancer. He was the one that set up a CT and MRI to look for other organ or lymph node involvement. Once it was determined that there was most likely lymph node involvement, he set me up with the Radiation doc and the Oncologist. You can see by my signature the treatment plan after that.

Hoping for some clean biopsy results for you.

[nkoske]

As Kelly said, typically if your tumor is within the Rectal/Sigmoid area you'll get radiation first for the reasons Kelly specified. The caveat being, if the tumor is obstructing and you can't have bowel movements they will do surgery first, in which case they may suggest that you do radiation after the surgery. The reason they do radiation for Rectal/Sigmoid cancers is because the area of more tolerant to radiation (more so in men). Cancers higher in the colon are closer to the small intestine which is not tolerant to radiation.

[justin case]

I had a 6 cm tumor in my rectum, and an 8 cm tumor in my sigmoid colon. I did chemo, chemo/ radiation, had surgery, and did more chemo. It took about a year, and right now I have no signs of cancer. Stop breath, and wait for your results to come back.
Regards,
Michael

[kiwiinoz]

I had two tumours in my rectum adjacent to each other. 1 was 2cm and one was 5 cm, and they had metastasized so you can see that size alone is not a good indicator for aggressiveness as Michael (justin case) lost to me in size, but I'd happily lose to him any day on staging.

What is, is what is, so whilst it is all scary at this stage there is a set routine that is happening and the doctors are used to it. They'll guide you through the path and you will, believe it or not, come out the other side at some stage.