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Looking For Help With A Study

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 1:26 pm
by Deep
Hello,

I was just recently staged 3b rectal cancer. I am a 39 year old veteran. My surgeon told me the other day that the cancer has been in me a minimum of 4-5 years. He would not write that down in my records and then told me to get with my oncologist. The reason I am here asking for help is because that 4-5 years time means the difference between me being able to service connect my cancer as I was in the service 4 1/2 years ago. This service connection could mean a payment to my wife ( not a lot), but at least something in the event that the cancer wins the war. I am looking over old case law, and there is a case where a veteran won his appeal through the Department of Veteran Affairs using a study. I need help finding that study or really any study that shows how long it takes colon/rectal cancer to grow. Does anyone have any idea where to start. Google is no help on this one. I tried there before I came here. Hoping some of you all have read up and are ahead of me in learning about your illness.

Thanks

Jeff

Re: Looking For Help With A Study

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:18 pm
by CrossfitChick1980
Hello, my husband was medically retired from the Army and they service connected it simply because, 1: He did not have any real family history; 2: He was deployed twice, both times with exposure to smoke pits. His case was thoroughly gone through as it took them a year and a half to medically retire him. Hope that helps!

Re: Looking For Help With A Study

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:33 pm
by GrouseMan
Everyone's cancers are different in their growth rates. There is no set time and honestly say it has anything to do with your service is going to be hard to prove. Somewhere on this forum I posted some information on doubling times for colon cancer based on some generalizations.

Here is a link to it. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52854&p=416479&hilit=Doubling+time#p416479

Now this is the time it takes from the time it could be seen in a CT scan outwards if not treated. Time from say 5 cancerous cells in ones colon crypt is a lot longer time frame. I think I once sat down and figured my wife's tumor probably started about 9 years before diagnosis based on the average doubling time working backwards from the size of her primary tumor. Had she had a colonoscopy at age 50 they would have caught it as a polyp and could likely have saved her life before it had made it to stage IVb with spread to her liver spleen and peritoneum. That would have been 6 years since it started then instead of 9. You can see how much different in size that would be based on my previous post.

Now as for the study you asked about - I don't know how one would find that specific study your fellow service man was able to use and if it was actually associated with CRC. Someone would need a lot more details seeing as there are probably many thousands of trials that have taken place and many more every year.

Good Luck in your Journey. I would focus on your present situation rather than the possible past. If you search around in this forum I think you will find that its possible to overcome this as many have.

GrouseMan

Re: Looking For Help With A Study

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 11:26 pm
by Deep
GrouseMan wrote:Everyone's cancers are different in their growth rates. There is no set time and honestly say it has anything to do with your service is going to be hard to prove. Somewhere on this forum I posted some information on doubling times for colon cancer based on some generalizations.

Here is a link to it. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52854&p=416479&hilit=Doubling+time#p416479

Now this is the time it takes from the time it could be seen in a CT scan outwards if not treated. Time from say 5 cancerous cells in ones colon crypt is a lot longer time frame. I think I once sat down and figured my wife's tumor probably started about 9 years before diagnosis based on the average doubling time working backwards from the size of her primary tumor. Had she had a colonoscopy at age 50 they would have caught it as a polyp and could likely have saved her life before it had made it to stage IVb with spread to her liver spleen and peritoneum. That would have been 6 years since it started then instead of 9. You can see how much different in size that would be based on my previous post.

Now as for the study you asked about - I don't know how one would find that specific study your fellow service man was able to use and if it was actually associated with CRC. Someone would need a lot more details seeing as there are probably many thousands of trials that have taken place and many more every year.

Good Luck in your Journey. I would focus on your present situation rather than the possible past. If you search around in this forum I think you will find that its possible to overcome this as many have.

GrouseMan


I don't really need to prove the military caused it, as that will come with time. I was exposed to burn pits in Afghanistan. It will take the VA years to make the connection to the health effects and burn pits. That is this generation's "agent orange". I just need to prove that the cancer has been in me for 4-5 years, which would put me back in uniform. I understand what you are saying and getting a medical opinion from one of my doctors is easier said than done. my tumor was 60 x 45 mm in size and has penetrated all the layers of the colon. I have a little spread to a few possible lymph nodes. The doctors are straightforward that this cancer was most likely caused by environmental factors and the only place I came into contact with chemicals was in the Army. Harder to prove than to tell. Common sense says the two are related, but proving it will be an uphill battle. I will probably have to pay to see a Doctor outside of the VA as these guys don't seem to want to help one bit.

Re: Looking For Help With A Study

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 6:28 am
by Maggie Nell
You'll need to get your own doctor - a medico-legal specialist who can do the assessments and
is experienced with the red-tape bureaucracy of the DVA.

You might have already seen these.

https://www.burnpits360.org/Illnesses---Symptoms.html

https://www.curetoday.com/articles/joe- ... ons-cancer

https://archives-veterans.house.gov/sub ... n-pits-360

Re: Looking For Help With A Study

Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2019 8:13 am
by Deep
Just in case anybody runs into this thread at a later date and finds themselves in a similar situation, I was able to get service connected for cancer. My Oncologist wrote me a strong letter indicating that rectal cancer grows at an average rate of 10 years before it starts showing symptoms. He also used the fact that I do not have the lynch syndrome and that only 4.5% of rectal cancers are diagnosed in people of my age. Making this cancer a rarity and more than likely caused by a chemical exposure. Which I had in combat.