Any Stage IV's that have been cured?

[Grace14]

I also agree with so-confused!! Everytime someone comes on here and is optimistic, you always find a way to bring them down and that's so unfair! I know that you have alot on your plate and that you know alot about this disease but that does not give you the right to shatter Someones hopes! Give it a rest Gaelen!!!

[missjv]

anything is possible so don't let anyone crap in your cornflakes. some people are cured some aren't some live many years with this disease some die right away. who is to say you or any of the rest of us are not curable? got to ignore the negative people. i was diagnosed 6 years ago stage 4 and im getting ready to walk out the door and go to the beach. will i ever be cured? who the hell knows but i have gotten the last 6 years to see my daughter go from 2nd grade to 8th grade. so far i have been very lucky to have minimal mets that were small and resectable. i have been through chemo, 3 nasty long and painful surgeries, rfa and that is so far. who knows whats next? there is new drugs in the pipeline for crc and who's to say those drugs won't beat the hell out of this disease. those of us with stage 4 disease know what we have we are not stupid. anytime i wake up on the right side of the turf is going to be another good day. will i die of cancer? maybe but i could also drop dead of a heart attack or get hit by a bus who's to say. no one has the right to crap on anyone's hopes just cause they think they know it all.


missjv

[andy21]

Herman Cain also was Stage IV and is currently NED:

http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/health_sto ... 13023.html

[prtza]

My doctors have stated that as far as they are concerned I am cured, and I haven't reached the 5 year mark yet.

It's almost 8 years now hey Cpt Mac?

[cptmac]

Yes, it's been almost 8 years since I was diagnosed, almost 8 years since I was NED, almost 6 years from when my docs considered me cured, almost 3 years since I saw my oncologist, and now I can go for months without thinking that I had cancer..

The time, for me, went by faster than I could ever imagine. Easy to say now, that it is behind me..

I wish everyone the best of success with the newer treatment options....

[dianetavegia]

Bumping this for Dixiecups, a new member who is Stage IV.

[taexali]

Male 66 yrs.
DX 7/2007 Stage IV Rectal with mets to lung
8/2007 to 9/2007 Chemo (Fufa) & Radiation
12/2007 LAR + Colonic J-Pouch + Ileo
1/2008 to 9/2008 Chemo (Oxaliplatin)
11/2008 Ileo reversal
5/2009 Left lower lobectomy
7/2012 NED

I wish that I had discovered Colon Talk when I was receiving treatment.
There is so much useful information here that I missed out on and would have been most helpful.

Taexali

[andy21]

Wade Hayes: Stage IV Colon Cancer Survivor

http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1 ... tory.jhtml

[Lara239]

Disclaimer for what I am about to say here: I do NOT have cancer myself and I am only a caregiver to my husband who is stage 3c
Our oncologist at Vanderbilt told me the day we were in his office that he believes that stage IV can be curable. I am SURE he did not mean every case...not sure what he meant as he was vague about it. He just said that all the tremendous advances in liver surgeries/treatments have made it possible. I have never heard a doctor or oncologist say that before. I DO know a lady who had stage IV CC with inumerable mets everwhere and now she has not one detectable cancer cell in her body now for 5 years. Not sure if that means she is cured or just in a really solid state of remmission. She did have loads of alterntative treatment (herbs and things) as well as regular chemo though...not sure if that is what made the big difference, guess you can never really know.
Another very good friend of mine who has stage IV colon cancer is also going to the same practice at Vanderbilt right now (different oncologist but same group/practice) and she was also told that stage for CAN be curable. I say CAN here as I dont like to give people false hope on this board....just repeating what our onocolgist said. She just got diagnosed this summer, was totally inoperable and now has had MAJOR shrinking of all tumors and will probably be operable soon. I guess everybody's case is just different.

[andy21]

Another Book about long term Stage IV survivor since 20+ years.
Hope and Prayer together with a good medical team can do miracles even now.

http://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Will-Come-Ja ... 1605632503

[sadysue]

I have a good friend who is a stage IV lymphoma (sp?) survivor - 12 years. She got cancer pretty young and is in her early/mid 50's now with grandchildren. What an inspiration!

[sadysue]

Lara239.......what is your opinion of Vanderbilt? We are planning a move to TN once we get our house sold and Vanderbilt will be the closest big cancer center available to me. My current radiation onc is a graduate of Vanderbilt and currently practices at the Univ of PA Hospital in Philadelphia. He told me he could hook me up with doctors at Vanderbilt when I get down there. Thanks
Mary Ann

[Lara239]

Lara239.......what is your opinion of Vanderbilt? We are planning a move to TN once we get our house sold and Vanderbilt will be the closest big cancer center available to me. My current radiation onc is a graduate of Vanderbilt and currently practices at the Univ of PA Hospital in Philadelphia. He told me he could hook me up with doctors at Vanderbilt when I get down there. Thanks
Mary Ann

Well, so far we have been very impressed but we just started and we also have nothing to compare it to since neither one of us (my husband nor I) have had cancer before now. there is another large clinic here in Nashville but they are not even nationally ranked. Vanderbilt is ranked #29 out of 900 cancer treatment centers nationally so I guess they do very well. Like I said above, i have another friend who is stage IV and she was completely inoperable and had done 8 rounds of chemo at Vandy and I believe she will be operable soon because she is responding so well. She is in her 50's. The thing I like is they do not keep you waiting around so long...they give you a pager and move you along very quickly and I feel like it is such classy place. You get your very own chemo room when your treated which from what I have been told is rare. I would definitely choose Vanderbilt if I had a choice and was in Tennessee for certain! I just dont know how my husband will respond to his treatment since he has only had one so far....but it went okay, no major problems. I hope that helps from a newbie!

[sadysue]

Lara...thanks for the reply. Your info is much appreciated

[pog451]

I saw this thread pop up and revsited it in the light of my metastatic progression and have two thoughts.

The jury is out on whether I was StIV all along or have just had a rapid progression/recurrance (both are not good news) but my oncologist, who is a pretty down-to earth guy and very well aware that I am almost as well informed as he is and so could probably see through any smokescreen clearly expects to be able to cure me (his exact words, albeit in German), and that despite the assumption that I am currently probably inoperable (his assessment, not yet a surgeons). He promised to tell me if his opinion changed, which it might when we see how I react to Folfox, and there are lots of studies about how Docs are unwilling to communicate prognoses they fear themselves, but I dont think hes fazing me and I choose to accept his guarded optimism.

The other thought comes after I re-visited Gaelens "cold wind of reality" post. Quite apart from the fact that Gaelen has sadly proved herself right by passing recently despite a couple of extended periods NED, I realised she had made an error in presenting her (uncomfortable but based on solid facts) stats. She stated that "most people live the median of 3 years" (paraphrased). Well actually, of course, the whole point of the "median" is that exactly half the people studied (minus the guy who was the median) lived less than three years (and many considerably less - Its a sobering thought that up to 20 or 30% of the people diagnosed when I was a year ago may well already be dead), and exactly half (minus the median) lived longer. Now if you look at the curve (any survival curve) it continues to fall very steeply after the median and Im sure not many folks would regard it as a huge advantage to live 3 years + two weeks (which was essentially Gaelens point) but even so.

As a point of interest, the US Wikipedia page for CRC still has that stat that we know and love whereby overall long term survival @ STIV is 5%. The German wiki page now has "0-57%", which pretty much exactly reflects what newer chemo and advanced surgical techniques are achieving in pre-selected patients. Of course, the sum total may remain low, but its an indication that some of us stage IVs are increasingly in with a good fighting chance. Gaelen was fond of saying that the overall survival stats for CRC havent moved significantly in decades. In Germany (thats me), something like 65000 new cases (2008) are diagnosed a year. 5% is still 3250 people. A 1% increase (I dont know the excat number or even if there has been an increase like this) in overall survival would mean 650 more people staying alive and most of the research and progress is at Stage IV. Every little helps and each and every one of those 3250+650 is a person. One could be me. Or you. Hopefully AND you.

Yeah, im lying here with my Folfox flowing and have nothing better to do. Does it show?

Stay well, fellow survivors.