Good Scan Results at 4 months!

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boxhill
Posts: 789
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:40 am

Good Scan Results at 4 months!

Postby boxhill » Fri Jul 13, 2018 11:25 am

Yesterday I got the results of Monday's thoracic/abdominal/pelvic scans with both oral and IV contrast. First time for thoracic, and first time with oral contrast, so I was expecting more detail might turn something up.

Completely clean, with the exception of a single tiny 2mm "indeterminate" lung node. Since it is too small to show up on an x-ray, I may have had it forever, as many people do, and it may be nothing, as most apparently are. Something to keep an eye on for the future, but not to get worried about.

My oncologist and I are very happy to have further insight into the situation, and especially to confirm the somewhat tentative post surgical opinion that there were no known masses. I was bracing for at least some suspicious lymph nodes, given the surgical results, and perhaps some liver irregularities, so I am mightily relieved and my spirits are high! :)

I was also able to have my 5th infusion--no low blood counts this time--and my WBC, which has been hovering just above 2.0, was all the way up to 7.6 after my shot of neulasta last time! That is actually the first time since surgery it has risen into the normal range.

BTW, I attribute this largely to my very thorough and experienced surgeon, who actually specializes in transplants and is not a board certified CRC surgeon, to my knowledge, although he does lots of them.
F, 64 at DX CRC Stage IV
3/17/18 blockage, r hemi
11 of 25 LN,5 mesentery nodes
5mm liver met
pT3 pN2b pM1
BRAF wild, KRAS G12D
dMMR, MSI-H
5/18 FOLFOX
7/18 and 11/18 CT NED
12/18 MRI 5mm liver mass, 2 LNs in porta hepatis
12/31/18 Keytruda
6/19 Multiphasic CT LNs normal, Liver stable
6/28/19 Pause Key, predisone for joint pain
7/31/19 Restart Key
9/19 CT stable
Pain: all fails but Celebrex
12/23/19 CT stable
5/20 MRI stable/NED
6/20 Stop Key
All MRIs NED

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LPL
Posts: 651
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 12:49 am
Location: Europe

Re: Good Scan Results at 4 months!

Postby LPL » Fri Jul 13, 2018 12:32 pm

Wonderful news :D
Congratulations!
DH @ 65 DX 4/11/16 CC recto-sigmoid junction
Adenocarcenoma 35x15x9mm G3(biopsi) G1(surgical)
Mets 3 Liver resectable
T4aN1bM1a IVa 2/9 LN
MSS, KRAS-mut G13D
CEA & CA19-9: 5/18 2.5 78 8/17 1.4 48 2/14/17 1.8 29
4 Folfox 6/15-7/30 (b4 liver surgery) 8 after
CT: 8/8 no change 3/27/17 NED->Jan-19 mets to lung NED again Oct-19 :)
:!: Steroid induced hyperglycemia dx after 3chemo
Surgeries 2016: 3/18 Emergency colostomy
5/23 Primary+gallbl+stoma reversal+port 9/1 Liver mets
RFA 2019: Feb & Oct lung mets

Beckster
Posts: 438
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 3:01 pm
Location: New Jersey

Re: Good Scan Results at 4 months!

Postby Beckster » Sat Jul 14, 2018 5:57 pm

Awesome news! :D :D
57/F
DX:(CC) 10/19/16
11/4/16- Lap right hemi(cecum)
CEA- Pre Op (1.9), Pre Chemo (2.5)
Type: Adenocarcinoma
Tumor size:3.5 cm x 2.5 x 0.7 cm
Grade: G3
TNM: T3N0M0/IIA
LN: 0/24
LVI present
Surgical margins: clear
MSS
12/27/2016 - Capeox, anaphylactic
1/2/17 to 6/9/17- Xeloda
6/17,12/17,6/18,12/18,6/19,12/19,12/20,12/21 CT Scan NED :D
CEA- 6/17- 3.6, 9/17- 2.8 12/17-2.8, 3/18-3.1, 6/18-3.0, 9/18 2.8, 12/18 2.5 3/19 3.1 6/19 3.1 9/19 2.6 12/19 2.8 6/20 3.0 12/20 2.7 6/21 2.9,[color=#000000]12/21 2.7[/color]
Clear Colonoscopy 10/17, 11/19,11/21 :D

boxhill
Posts: 789
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:40 am

Re: Good Scan Results at 4 months!

Postby boxhill » Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:53 am

Something odd: my CEA was 3 when I had surgery, but they said the tumor didn't express it so it is useless as a marker. This time I happened to get a printout of my full bloodwork results, and noticed that my CEA was 6. I don't know exactly what to make of it, since the cell-death theory of why chemo causes it to rise would not seem to apply here. Or maybe not. Thoughts?
F, 64 at DX CRC Stage IV
3/17/18 blockage, r hemi
11 of 25 LN,5 mesentery nodes
5mm liver met
pT3 pN2b pM1
BRAF wild, KRAS G12D
dMMR, MSI-H
5/18 FOLFOX
7/18 and 11/18 CT NED
12/18 MRI 5mm liver mass, 2 LNs in porta hepatis
12/31/18 Keytruda
6/19 Multiphasic CT LNs normal, Liver stable
6/28/19 Pause Key, predisone for joint pain
7/31/19 Restart Key
9/19 CT stable
Pain: all fails but Celebrex
12/23/19 CT stable
5/20 MRI stable/NED
6/20 Stop Key
All MRIs NED

DarknessEmbraced
Posts: 3816
Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2014 4:54 pm
Facebook Username: Riann Fletcher
Location: New Brunswick, Canada

Re: Good Scan Results at 4 months!

Postby DarknessEmbraced » Mon Jul 16, 2018 10:06 am

Wonderful news! :D
Diagnosed 10/28/14, age 36
Colon Resection 11/20/14, LAR (no illeo)
Stage 2a colon cancer, T3NOMO
Lymph-vascular invasion undetermined
0/22 lymph nodes
No chemo, no radiation
Clear Colonoscopy 04/29/15
NED 10/20/15
Ischemic Colitis 01/21/16
NED 11/10/16
CT Scan moved up due to high CEA 08/21/17
NED 09/25/17
NED 12/21/18
Clear colonoscopy 09/23/19
Clear 5 year scans 11/21/19- Considered cured! :)

User avatar
LPL
Posts: 651
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 12:49 am
Location: Europe

Re: Good Scan Results at 4 months!

Postby LPL » Mon Jul 16, 2018 12:26 pm

boxhill wrote:Something odd: my CEA was 3 when I had surgery, but they said the tumor didn't express it so it is useless as a marker. This time I happened to get a printout of my full bloodwork results, and noticed that my CEA was 6. I don't know exactly what to make of it, since the cell-death theory of why chemo causes it to rise would not seem to apply here. Or maybe not. Thoughts?

I’m sorry I do not understand your signature. It says neg CEA, mut Kras etc.. Can you have a CEA mutation? I’ve never heard about that! My husband has a Kras mutation and it looks like CEA is not such a good cancer marker for him (CA19-9 has reacted though). But I did not know there was a test to see if CEA can be used as a marker or not?!?
DH @ 65 DX 4/11/16 CC recto-sigmoid junction
Adenocarcenoma 35x15x9mm G3(biopsi) G1(surgical)
Mets 3 Liver resectable
T4aN1bM1a IVa 2/9 LN
MSS, KRAS-mut G13D
CEA & CA19-9: 5/18 2.5 78 8/17 1.4 48 2/14/17 1.8 29
4 Folfox 6/15-7/30 (b4 liver surgery) 8 after
CT: 8/8 no change 3/27/17 NED->Jan-19 mets to lung NED again Oct-19 :)
:!: Steroid induced hyperglycemia dx after 3chemo
Surgeries 2016: 3/18 Emergency colostomy
5/23 Primary+gallbl+stoma reversal+port 9/1 Liver mets
RFA 2019: Feb & Oct lung mets

boxhill
Posts: 789
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:40 am

Re: Good Scan Results at 4 months!

Postby boxhill » Tue Jul 17, 2018 10:34 am

After surgery they told me that my tumor "did not express CEA," so it would not work as a marker for me. That is what I meant by negative for CEA. I gather that this is the case for some percentage of people, perhaps around 30% or so for CRC. I think that the test is a cell staining. BTW, I also have a KRAS mutation. My understanding is that at this point it mostly affects treatment choices, as in EFGR-related therapies probably won't work.

Since then I've looked into it further. Here's an interesting article:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5348349/

Now I wonder whether what they meant was that the cells were CEA lo. I'll have to ask my oncologist about it.
F, 64 at DX CRC Stage IV
3/17/18 blockage, r hemi
11 of 25 LN,5 mesentery nodes
5mm liver met
pT3 pN2b pM1
BRAF wild, KRAS G12D
dMMR, MSI-H
5/18 FOLFOX
7/18 and 11/18 CT NED
12/18 MRI 5mm liver mass, 2 LNs in porta hepatis
12/31/18 Keytruda
6/19 Multiphasic CT LNs normal, Liver stable
6/28/19 Pause Key, predisone for joint pain
7/31/19 Restart Key
9/19 CT stable
Pain: all fails but Celebrex
12/23/19 CT stable
5/20 MRI stable/NED
6/20 Stop Key
All MRIs NED

User avatar
LPL
Posts: 651
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 12:49 am
Location: Europe

Re: Good Scan Results at 4 months!

Postby LPL » Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:53 pm

boxhill wrote:After surgery they told me that my tumor "did not express CEA," so it would not work as a marker for me. That is what I meant by negative for CEA. I gather that this is the case for some percentage of people, perhaps around 30% or so for CRC. I think that the test is a cell staining. BTW, I also have a KRAS mutation. My understanding is that at this point it mostly affects treatment choices, as in EFGR-related therapies probably won't work.

Since then I've looked into it further. Here's an interesting article:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5348349/

Now I wonder whether what they meant was that the cells were CEA lo. I'll have to ask my oncologist about it.

Thank You so much Boxhill for looking in to this! and for that interesting link/research article.
Please share what you will find out after talking to your Onc. Maybe start a new discussion about this because more people will see and maybe they have not heard about this either?!
DH @ 65 DX 4/11/16 CC recto-sigmoid junction
Adenocarcenoma 35x15x9mm G3(biopsi) G1(surgical)
Mets 3 Liver resectable
T4aN1bM1a IVa 2/9 LN
MSS, KRAS-mut G13D
CEA & CA19-9: 5/18 2.5 78 8/17 1.4 48 2/14/17 1.8 29
4 Folfox 6/15-7/30 (b4 liver surgery) 8 after
CT: 8/8 no change 3/27/17 NED->Jan-19 mets to lung NED again Oct-19 :)
:!: Steroid induced hyperglycemia dx after 3chemo
Surgeries 2016: 3/18 Emergency colostomy
5/23 Primary+gallbl+stoma reversal+port 9/1 Liver mets
RFA 2019: Feb & Oct lung mets

crikklekay
Posts: 142
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:47 am
Location: Richmond, VA

Re: Good Scan Results at 4 months!

Postby crikklekay » Thu Jul 19, 2018 10:44 pm

That’s wonderful news! It’s always good to read of stories like this one especially after reading scary updates from others. I hope your recovery continues to go well!
Caring for DH John
Stage IIIC, Lymph nodes: 6/22
Chemo: FOLFOX (6)
12/17 ER and emergency surgery
02/18 Hospital w/MSSA infected port, PICC line inserted, chest CT scan showed septic emboli & blood clots
03/18 Hospital w/CDIFF
08/18 CT Scan Clear, NEMD
2018/2019/2021 Colonoscopy Clear
2019/2020/2021/2022 CT Scan Clear
2021 PET scan & MRI show one spot on liver
08/21 Liver surgery to remove spot, confirmed mCRC. Now Stage IV
09/21 Start Folfiri + Avastin
03/22 CEA Rise, continuing chemo


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