The Colon Club

Hi all, as you know that last ct, pet scan , colonoscopy and ultrasound endoscopic confirmed that tumor is metastatic to perirectal and assuming at peritoneal too. As per your experience, can we do surgery on these places as well as one spot at lung rather getting chemo. Last visit it was told that if boispy of perirectal was confirmed, doc told to go with chemo rather than lung surgery but now they are discussing about doing surgery as chemo can only shrink the tumor. And all the tumor is less than 1 cm. All your suggestions are really valuable.
Thank you
Suniva

Hi Suniva,
I have no experience with your met locations, but in our case we were told that surgery would only be considered after cancer was stabilized/under control, so DH did 18 rounds of Folfiri before getting his adrenal gland removed. It had shrunk by about 50% and his lungs mets were pretty much all gone (or at least not detectable). My understanding is that in the case of multiple met locations, doctors are reluctant to do surgery if cancer is still actively progressing/spreading so they want chemo to knock it down before operating.

Thank you for your reply Claudine, recently found are at perirectal and pelvis both of them are around 4mm. Previous one at left lung, at right lung surgery is already done.

Are you in the USA? If you are, get a 2nd opinion at a major cancer hospital. You want a team of aggressive doctors dealing with your current situation. Major cancer hospitals tend to be on the leading edge of today of what is deemed tomorrow standard of care.

Lee

Lee wrote:Are you in the USA? If you are, get a 2nd opinion at a major cancer hospital. You want a team of aggressive doctors dealing with your current situation. Major cancer hospitals tend to be on the leading edge of today of what is deemed tomorrow standard of care.

Lee

Completely agree with this - re-resections (aka ‘salvage’ resections) of the (peri-)rectum and pelvis/peritoneum are definitely done but usually only by specialist colorectal / peritoneal surgeons in this area. I’d suggest doing some research for names, and considering travelling for a direct consult if necessary.

Good luck,
Rob

Yes we are from MN, our local oncology is from U, with long discussion with team they want to do open surgery at perirectal and peritoneal if possible. They want to hold chemo as my husband is getting lot of bowel movements everyday, like he is chemo break since end of Jan and still have abdominal pain and frequent bowel movements. As per your suggestion, we are going to get second opinion from Mayo about it.