Newbie to the CC

[jasonandsarah]

I'm new to this club. My wonderful wife (50) was diagnosed in March with CRC. At that time it seemed like resection (sigmoidectomy) and a quick check of the LNs and we'd be done. Well, after resection, found 1 of 14 LN positive, so of to adjuvant therapy. Not so fast new baseline CT shows new spot on liver (really ... in two months - I thought CRC was 'slow'). MRI raises our onc's confidence we're now stage iv. Just did first round of folfox today. Still hanging onto the fact it's small (1.7 x 1.4 cm). Don't know if it's resectable yet (find out Monday), onto Mayo on Tuesday for additional eyes. Scared about losing my soulmate. Grateful for a site like this. Haven't told our son about stage iv yet... want him to finish his finals first. He's really close to my wife. Trying to stay positive.... we keep our mantra to '1 small' and hang on to that for now. Sorry for barfing all this up on the site.
Thanks,
J

[Basil]

Did they do a Ct and/or mri at initial dx? I'm in a similar boat but had clear liver/lung scans in march. I have new scans in a month. Drs were not concerned with immediate treatment solely because of the slow growth nature. So this is scary.

[Lee]

Hi and welcome,

Sorry for your wife's diagnoses. Have you had a Pet scan yet? If not you might want to push for it.

Dr. Kemny at Sloan Kettering Memorial in New York City has had great success with liver mets.

All the best to you and your wife.

Lee

[DarknessEmbraced]

I'm so sorry for your wife's diagnosis and hope her chemo goes well.*hugs*

[jasonandsarah]

Wow, tears to my eyes here on the support and caring.
@Basil - yes they did CT and MRI at initial and this tumor was not there. It's hypodense with the ring.. which of course does not bode well.
@Lee - They did contrast, not sure if it's classified as PET scan. MRI with Eovist.
@DarknessEmbraced - Thank you
We did go to have it biopsied, but there were differences of opinions on whether they could do it with ultrasound or not (which was prescribed) - turning into a Cluster Fluck in the end did not have it biopsied.
We are doing 2 months of chemo and then hopefully resection, then on for more chemo.

Anyone else seen this regimen? I'm really hoping TIL therapy is available soon.

[Lee]

@Lee - They did contrast, not sure if it's classified as PET scan. MRI with Eovist.

We did go to have it biopsied, but there were differences of opinions on whether they could do it with ultrasound or not (which was prescribed) - turning into a Cluster Fluck in the end did not have it biopsied.
We are doing 2 months of chemo and then hopefully resection, then on for more chemo.

Anyone else seen this regimen? I'm really hoping TIL therapy is available soon.

No that is not a PET scan, butt many times a CAT scan (with contrast) is used together with a PET scan. This is very lay man terms (I'm not a Dr), with a PET scan you are given radio active sugar glucose. Cancer cells love that sugar (glucose, not to be confused with table sugar) and suck it up. They look for an uptake. This uptake takes on a very red (high activity) color simply because those cancer cells loves that glucose (again not to be confused with table sugar). Table sugar is okay to eat.

It's a good way to find out if something suspicious is cancer. No uptake=no cancer. Butt location is also important, which is why a medically trained person is looking at the results. I had a PET scans once, Certain areas were red and I'm like that is not good. My Onc is like, that is nothing for the _________ area.

Hope this helps.

If your wife is dealing with a stage IV diagnoses, you really want to get a 2nd opinion at a major cancer treatment center. Where are you. HAI pump with Dr. Kemny has had a lot of success with people who have been told chemo for life only option. Cancer treatment centers are on the leading edge of the latest and new procedures. Remember not all Dr are equal.

Hope this helps,

Lee