Postby Laurettas » Sat Apr 18, 2015 9:05 am
My husband had SRC colon cancer. He was advanced stage 4 at diagnosis. Yes, when one reads about this disease, it is very frightening. The prognosis is dismal but there are a few who have beat the odds, particularly at stage 3 or lower. I will share a few things that I learned from my husband's experience. As far as chemo goes, the cancer responded very well to both Folfox and Folfiri. Within 6 months, his peritoneal mets had disappeared, never to return and the remaining cancer which was located in his lymph system had regressed to the point of being inactive on his PET scan. Unfortunately it was decided to put him on Erbitux alone without checking his cancer for all of the mutations that make Erbitux ineffective. Later testing showed that his cancer was BRAF mutant, which is one of the mutations that Erbitux does not work for. So, I would make sure that extensive testing is done on the tumor to see as best as possible what its profile is like, because some SRC is more similar to melanoma than it is regular colon cancer which could open up the possibility of different drugs. Also, this cancer grows VERY rapidly. I would beg for scans at least every two months. When my husband was on Erbitux alone, his cancer went from being inactive with his lymph tumors being shrunk back to normal size to having extensive new growth throughout his body in less than 4 months. Also, for him CEA was a very good indicator. His CEA numbers were not high but when the numbers decreased, his cancer was regressing and as soon as his numbers began climbing, his cancer was growing. I hope this information is helpful for you and if I can help in any way, please feel free to contact me.
DH 58 4/11 st 4 SRC CC
Lymph, peri, lung
4/11 colon res
5-10/11 FLFX, Av, FLFRI, Erb
11/11 5FU Erb
1/12 PET 2.4 Max act.
1/12 Erb
5/12 CT ext. new mets
5/12 Xlri
7/12 bad CT
8/12 5FU solo
8/12 brain met
9/12 stop tx
11/4/12 finished race,at peace