prognosis for colon adenocarcinoma (grade3 invasive )?

[nerd89]

hello all
Im new here ... I'm asking on behalf a very close friend of mine ... it is about her mother
she was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma (grade 3) 6 months ago .... I'm the only person who knows about her mothers diagnosis other than her family
so I'm the only one my friend come to for support ... I researched a lot of positive and encouraging stories/news for her .... anyhow her mother is at the end of her treatment and will have full tests/scans in the next couple of weeks to determine if her cancer is gone and my friend is freaking out she is losing clumps of hair daily because of stress

I read a lot of prognosis depending on stages but not on grades
her mother is mid 60s ... no past medical history ... she always complained of abdominal pain ... the pain got so much worse before diagnosis she was admitted where a blood test showed very low iron level the doctor suspected internal bleeding so he asked for an endoscopy and a ct scan
the scan showed that part of the colon was "inflamed" the endoscopy showed a fungitating (sp?) mass ... a biopsy confirmed the diagnosis
she had full scans and all her body is clear nothing was seen in other parts of the body (lungs,liver...etc was all clear)
does that make her stage 1 ??? but her cancer is grade 3 ? i know it have different meanings but at the end both of this combined what does it mean ?

for 6 months she had a session of chemo every 6 months ... she did not lose any hair and thank god no side effect so far
I know and understand every case is different but I want to know does it look like she will get NED after all her final tests ???

[Carolinabluetec]

You did not mention how "the mass" was removed. Here are the Grades that pathologist use to classify surgical specimens.

Histologic Grade

As normal cells develop, they "differentiate" to become a specific type of cell. Histologic grade describes how closely the tumor cells resemble normal cells. The more a tumor cell looks like a normal cell, the more well- differentiated it is . On the other hand, the more cells do not look like normal cells (higher grade) the more aggressive they are, growing and spreading faster. Histologic tumor grade is broken down as follows:

Tumor Grade (G)
•GX: The tumor grade cannot be identified.
•G 1: also called well differentiated. Cells appear the most normal.
•G 2: also called moderately differentiated. Cells appear somewhat like normal cells.
•G 3: also called poorly differentiated. Cells look less like normal cells.
•G4: also called undifferentiated. Cells appear the most abnormal and barely look like normal cells.

My Oncologist told me that while grade has some significance, It is not a reliable predictor of the patient's outcome.

[nerd89]

yes sorry I forgot to mention before the chemo started she had a surgery where they removed %30 of the colon ....

[Lee]

Hi and welcome.

Thank you for helping your friend. That is very generous of you.

Do you know if any lymph nodes tested positive for cancer? If no, she could be a stage I or stage II depending how deep the tumor penetrated.

Do you know what chemo was used?

Again welcome,

Lee

[nerd89]

Hi and welcome.

Thank you for helping your friend. That is very generous of you.

Do you know if any lymph nodes tested positive for cancer? If no, she could be a stage I or stage II depending how deep the tumor penetrated.

Do you know what chemo was used?

Again welcome,

Lee

hello and thanks for your reply

I was in a very dark period of my life few years ago where I faced horrible things and I got little support
I know how important it is to get a support and a shoulder to cry on
this thing with my friend's mother caused my aniexty and made me remember things I don't want to remember but I feel it is important to stand by her I don't want to let her down they way I was let down

anyhow back to herm other than the tumour everything is clear (from scans and biopsies ) I knew the name of the chemo but I forgot but there is a pill form from it too
and first her doctor wanted her to take the pill form saying it is exactly the same but then changed his mind and now she is taking the chemo by IV which goes directly to her chest

[mstults]

Most likely it's 5-FU. The pill form is Xeloda.