jsbsf wrote:Thanks cured. We have tried fenben too. Husband is doing very well, and we are not sure which treatment or combination of treatments is making the biggest difference. He did a 4 week 3 days on 4 days off regimen once. He started a second 4 week try, but just had surgery yesterday so didn’t do the 4th week.
After yesterday’s surgery, today a nurse told him something interesting, and I’m not sure how many people are aware. I’ve read a lot, but didn’t know this. He had a laparoscopic liver resection where the one remaining met was removed (liver is now cancer free. Yay!). His surgeon wanted to keep him overnight, even though the surgery went very well. There was some miscommunication or misunderstanding, because a (different) nurse told me they noticed what appeared to be a blood clot and wanted to do a ct scan.
This morning, before he was released, he asked about his ct scan and the blood clot. This nurse said there was no blood clot (there never was). The ct scan was a precaution, because cancer patients are more susceptible to blood clots than non-cancer patients. She went on to say the blood has properties that make it “stickier”, and they wanted to rule out any blood clots before sending him home. She said the stickier blood clots more easily, but also provides a mechanism that allows the cancer cells to lodge, clump together and form tumors.
What seems unknown is why the blood is different, and it seems the cancer cells either are the reason, or contribute to it somehow. One thing we are very excited about is that after almost six months of treatment and scans, no new mets have been found.
Hi jsbsf, as someone who had a clot (DVT), I can confirm this is absolutely right!
Actually cancer patients often have multiple factors for clotting risk, aka the 3 “C’s” - Cancer itself, Chemotherapy, and Catheters (ie from a port). Add to this that many ca patients have major abdominal surgery and are then immobile for a period, and you have very high clotting risk. Once you’ve had one clot, the chance of another is higher (the 4th “C”). Clots are the leading cause of death in cancer patients after the cancer itself, so they are not something to muck about with and any symptoms should be taken very seriously.
There is a theory (fairly well established I think) that the clotting mechanism is actually one of the processes in the body that cancer “hijacks” in order to metastasise. Single cells can’t form a solid tumour; they need to bind together somehow, and the clotting process is an ideal method. So by increasingly the “clottiness” of the blood (by making genetic changes which increase production of pro-coagulation factors), cancer makes it easier for it spread. There is some early suggestion that anticoagulation therapy may hence impair metastasis, but not enough to use it as standard (as it has it own risks). It did make me not mind taking all those clexane injections so much though...