The Colon Club

Hi All,

Haven't been active lately, were busy with hubby's chemo, side effects,.my own surgery.

So before my husband started his post op chemo he had one enlarged (9mm) common iliac lymph node showing on both CT and MRI. None of the doctors were concerned stating that this is most likely an inflammation rather than cancer. Our new oncologist said lets start the chemo and we will see. The plan is 8 cycles of Folfox.
When hubby completed his 4 cycles, he had his midchemo MRI and the lymph node is showing unchanged, still 9 mm. "Stable density 9mm lymph node.......grossly unchanged"

Our oncologist was on vacation so it was the nurse practitioner who discussed the results with us. All she said was that the lymph node is unchanged and that my husband MRI looks good. Both hubby and I are still confused. Don't know if this is good or bad.

Anyone had similar situation? Does unchanged lymph node mean it is cancer and is not responding to chemo or it means it is unlikely cancer and that is why its stable ( I'd assume chemo doesn't shrink inflammation)

The nurse didn't sound too knowledgeable about this type of situation. While we are waiting for our oncologist to come back from vacation, in the meantime any insight will be appreciated.

Wish I had an answer for you—curious to see what others say because I remember talking about this node with you awhile back. How did the rest of the scan results go? Is the cancer shrinking?

Oh duh, disregard my question—your hubby already had his radiation and surgery! (For a brief second I thought he was doing neoadjuvant chemo). So there is nothing to shrink!

Punky44 wrote:Oh duh, disregard my question—your hubby already had his radiation and surgery! (For a brief second I thought he was doing neoadjuvant chemo). So there is nothing to shrink!

Hi Punky!

Yes my husband had chemoradiation before his surgery
His chemo was in the form of pill called Xeloda.
His tumor had shrunk from approximately 5.8 cm to 2.2. So only half. This mysterious lymph node was not there at the time of diagnosis nor was it before his surgery. It only showed up after his surgery. So we are quite puzzled about it.

I had one enlarged node after surgery (don’t know its name but in the retroperitoneal area). They thought maybe inflammation but after staying enlarged throughout chemo we did a PET and it was confirmed cancerous.
I would inquire about a PET to verify though I guess that wouldn’t be done til after chemo. I am guessing they will just want you to hold the line until chemo is complete and then check in things. Not sure if a liquid biopsy would help in this case? I was quite frustrated after completing 6 months of chemo to find that it had not helped with that node.
Hope your oncologist gives you more info on their return.

Beth

Stewsbetty wrote:I had one enlarged node after surgery (don’t know its name but in the retroperitoneal area). They thought maybe inflammation but after staying enlarged throughout chemo we did a PET and it was confirmed cancerous.
I would inquire about a PET to verify though I guess that wouldn’t be done til after chemo. I am guessing they will just want you to hold the line until chemo is complete and then check in things. Not sure if a liquid biopsy would help in this case? I was quite frustrated after completing 6 months of chemo to find that it had not helped with that node.
Hope your oncologist gives you more info on their return.

Beth

Beth how big was your node and was it staying the same size during chemo or it was getting bigger. My husband is going to have pet scan in couple of weeks. Hopefully that will clarify things a bit. I am holding my breath

Ask your Onco to order a PET/CAT scan.

E

Nohogirl wrote:

Stewsbetty wrote:I had one enlarged node after surgery (don’t know its name but in the retroperitoneal area). They thought maybe inflammation but after staying enlarged throughout chemo we did a PET and it was confirmed cancerous.
I would inquire about a PET to verify though I guess that wouldn’t be done til after chemo. I am guessing they will just want you to hold the line until chemo is complete and then check in things. Not sure if a liquid biopsy would help in this case? I was quite frustrated after completing 6 months of chemo to find that it had not helped with that node.
Hope your oncologist gives you more info on their return.

Beth

Beth how big was your node and was it staying the same size during chemo or it was getting bigger. My husband is going to have pet scan in couple of weeks. Hopefully that will clarify things a bit. I am holding my breath

Sorry I haven’t been on for a bit. I think it was just over 1 cm. I think for abominable LN the threshold is about 1cm. It is a an anxious time as we wait for tests and their results!