The Colon Club

Hello All,

It has been awhile since I have posted. I have been doing treatments for my lung mets since April of 2016. I have been through all the typical chemo treatments i.e.. Irinotecan with Avatin, and Cetuximab and even tried Oxaliplatin at a reduced dose due to anaphylaxis in 2014, only to be spend 4 more days in the hospital due to another reaction. My Dr. is now trying me on Strivarga , I should be starting in a couple of weeks, we are currently waiting for insurance approval. My mets are not resectable as there are too many ( 8 at last scan with 3 of them 3 cm or a little larger) bilateral.

I have read that there are some doctors that can perform laser surgery. Does anyone have any experience with this?or know where to go? I heard Germany and London but I am not sure who to contact? Or does anyone have another recommendations for other treatments? I am running out of options.

Hello RobM,
Did your doctor mention SBRT (Stereostatic Body radiation Therapy) as an option? My husband had the procedure done for a lumbar spinal met that was resistant to standard radiation. It is so focused that it does not affect adjacent healthy tissue like standard radiation does.
Best of luck,

Claudine

Hi ,
If you use the search function ( small magnifying glass on the top right ) and type in “Any surgeons doing laser surgery “. All the contact information is there . Sophy has included the contact phone number for Dr Drewes in Germany and you can read the feedback from the people who have had the surgery .
Take care,
Stu

Hi Rob,
I had bilateral lung mets removed using laser-assisted pulmonary metastatectomy in Germany in October 2018 and November 2018. I had four mets in my right upper lung and three mets in my left lower lung and was told they were not resectable. I sent my latest CAT scan images to Dr. Drewes in Coswig, Germany and he said they were resectable but they would probably need to take most of the left lower lobe. In short, the procedures were successful and I spent six weeks in Germany. There are two spots in my lungs that we are following now which are thought most likely to be post surgical change but I am back on chemo, getting regular surveillance CAT scans. I’m prepared for the next step if they grow.
Best wishes
Jules W

Hola, I hardly ever post, but I’ve had both lungs resected and then little spots showing up. I’m a MD Anderson patient and I’ve had cyrtoabeltion twice which is freezing it. It’s been in the same spot with cyrtoabeltion and the second time we iced more of it. That was back in Dec. of 17 last time and just got a clean scan. It was new, but I believe that insurance pays now so I’d call and check.

I also had "inoperable" lung mets removed in Coswig last year. As Jules mentioned, you need to contact Dr. Drewes and send a DVD of your most current CT scan. Don't just send the written report - he will want to review the scan "film" himself. Depending on location and other stuff, the YAG laser can remove 80-100 lung mets. Among the conditions I had: no chemo for 6 weeks prior to surgery, no flying for 4-6 weeks after surgery because of the risk of lung collapse, and no cancer currently anywhere outside of the lungs.

Here's the contact information:

http://www.fachkrankenhaus-coswig.de/leistungspektrum/thoraxchirurgie.html

I think it was a UK patient who told me that the surgery is no longer available in London.

Hope this helps.

One Plan B, might be to try to stop cell clusters' circulation and seeding with some metronomic/maintenance scheme until you got to Germany. One example, might be Lin's ADAPT formula extended with PSK and/or baby aspirin. My wife actually took a lot more stuff to achieve/keep chemo sensitivity.

A previous problem with the Germans is that they have given up on lung surgery in the past, if there are other met sites out side the lungs. I think that is a conceptual mistake if one does enough metronomic chemo to make cumulative progress with multiple surgeries, a multimodal plan.