Should my father do chemo after RFA treatment of single lung met?

[Ana123]

My father had a single lung met three years post initial colon surgery. His team sent him to SBRT as least invasive option (bad lungs, location doesn't make him VAT candidate). After SBRT, oncologist said chemo would only be dealing with hypothetical presence of cancer in blood as its only a single met. Better to wait and see on a three month scan schedule. 10 months later, his SBRT met had re-grown by a cm in three months. His team sent him to RFA. We are done with RFA and we are seeing the oncologist next week.

Should we push for chemo at this stage? Are there any single met RFA experiences, and what have been the post-treatment chemo options?

Thank you for any experiences and knowledge you can share.

[stu]

Hi ,
My mum had surgery for hers . It was slow growing so chemo was not deemed to be a useful tool . To be honest she is 75 and I want her to have the best of days with the good health that she is currently enjoying . So there was no push from our end to change the oncologists mind . She was 73 when she had the lung met removed . Two other nodules popped up and stayed a year then disappeared . We are going for the least invasive method as possible now but like I said it’s very slow growing .
All the best with his decision.
Stu

[Ana123]

Hi Stu, thanks for your input. Resection prospects seem to be much better than SBRT & RFA. I hope your mother stays NED.

Do you remember the radiologists definition of slow growing?

My father's met was initially 1.4cm after an eight/nine months scan. After SBRT it went from dead to 2.4cm in three months and was deemed "slow growing" by the radiologists. That doesn't seem very slow to me though.

[stu]

Hi ,
My mum’s was a lot slower than that and a bit smaller . Chemo might be effective as I think it’s to do with the rate of cell division that makes it work well . I could understand why my mum’s oncologist did not think it would achieve much for her . Plus chemo is hard on her . On the plus side my mum’s oncologist said some research is showing that the radiologist are not far behind the surgeons with lung mets . I wish him all the very best .
Take care,
Stu