Postby stu » Thu Jun 22, 2017 3:16 am
Hi,
You will have noticed that we have a different treatment protocol in the UK to the US . In the UK it is quite common to have chemo breaks where they come off chemo until a scan or markers show the need to start again . They would expect the tumour to start growing again but the speed of that is an unknown until they watch and see what happens. For instance my mum's liver mets start growing quite quickly but her lung met was slow growing and they were able to watch it for over a year with no intervention until it reached a certain size. The very good news is she responds well to treatment. If you go onto Beating Bowel Cancer Uk they have a forum with a stage 4 section . They have an excellent leaflet in it about treatment options and chemotherapy options that are available in the UK . This will show you how it's normally managed. You can ask for a surgical review and a radiologist review to see if they can offer any other way of helping her. With the Help of the NHS my mum has made it to 75 , eight years as a stage 4 patient . She still has a fit and active life and we make it clear she likes to explore all options open to her.
This is purely my opinion but I like the fact that my mum had treatment breaks as she could enjoy her life and in my mind every day is important but she followed her oncologists advise when to go on and off chemo but she insisted on referrals to other doctors as she wanted to hear it directly from them .
Hope that helps,
Stu
supporter to my mum who lives a great life despite a difficult diagnosis
stage4 2009 significant spread to liver
2010 colon /liver resection
chemo following recurrence
73% of liver removed
enjoying life treatment free
2016 lung resection
Oct 2017 nice clear scan . Two lung nodules disappeared
Oct 2018. Another clear scan .