New help NEW

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tng
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Apr 27, 2017 6:17 pm
Facebook Username: Tng

New help NEW

Postby tng » Thu Apr 27, 2017 7:32 pm

Good evening. I really need your guys wisdom please. I have an out of town friend who's mother was diagnosed 3 days ago with rectal cancer. He came home for her 1st surgery today, which was a colostomy bag. And asked if I could "help as needed", since he was out of town.

With that said, and as a male child, he ask very little....but tells me full plan, in his terms.

She is in mid 70's, and I have no idea of stage.?

Next, they will in next few weeks begin 6-8 weeks of chemo/radiation. Upon success of shrinking will do surgery to remove mass. She will then begin another round of chemo.

She has always been a blessing, but I would like to get a bit of information on what I'm looking at for prognosis.

Do her treatment plans indicate any staging? Does age affect success rate?

I feel unfortunate she is using local, small hospital, which specializes in nothing. Not to say it's a bad hospital, but it's not a specialty hospital for anything.

Blessing to all. Thank you for providing me as much wisdom and knowledge as you can.

TheSquire
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2017 11:09 am

Re: New help NEW

Postby TheSquire » Thu Apr 27, 2017 8:39 pm

This sounds like "standard of care" type treatment. The questions are what Stage is she: Tumor, Nodes
and metastasis. Will the colostomy be temporary or
permanent?
Age 53, male. Diagnosed with rectal cancer in lower rectum on 3/21/17. T2, N0, M0. No surgery. Going with Chemo-radiation approach. Started treatment on 4/25/17. Eight 14-day cycles of XelOx. Ended treatment on 11/3/17. Rectal exam and sigmoidoscopy (12/7) shows no tumor/complete response. Now on "watch and wait." Two years out still clear. Dec 2019.

User avatar
JJH
Posts: 408
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2017 7:26 am

NCCN Guidelines - Colon and Rectal Cancer

Postby JJH » Fri Apr 28, 2017 1:08 am

You can get some information from the NCCN patient guidelines. The easy-to-read patient guideline for Colon Cancer can be accessed here:

http://www.nccn.org/patients/guidelines/colon/index.html

There is also a PDF version of NCCN patient guideline specific for Rectal Cancer available for download from their website. Rectal Cancer treatment and prognosis is a bit different from that of colon cancer, but both follow the TNM staging system. Rectal cancer treatment usually involves chemo/radiation, whereas colon cancer treatment doesn't usually involve radiation

Here is the link for downloading the PDF file for Rectal Cancer;

https://www.tri-kobe.org/nccn/guideline/colorectal/english/rectal.pdf

To determine the complete staging they need to do some scans of the lungs, liver and other areas to check for spread. Have they mentioned the results of any scans?
Last edited by JJH on Wed Sep 13, 2017 6:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
"The darkest hour is just before the dawn" - Thomas Fuller (1650)
●●●

Lee
Posts: 6207
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 4:09 pm

Re: New help NEW

Postby Lee » Sat Apr 29, 2017 6:08 pm

I'm a bit confused.

Did she have surgery yet? If not, yes radiation is standard prior to surgery for rectal cancer.

If it's possible, I would recommend her getting a board certified colon rectal surgeon. They have more training in the colon rectal area and can be very good when dealing with a rectal cancer diagnoses.

Hope this helps,

Lee
rectal cancer - April 2004
46 yrs old at diagnoses
stage III C - 6/13 lymph positive
radiation - 6 weeks
surgery - August 2004/hernia repair 2014
permanent colostomy
chemo - FOLFOX
NED - 16 years and counting!

tng
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Apr 27, 2017 6:17 pm
Facebook Username: Tng

Re: New help NEW

Postby tng » Tue May 09, 2017 9:20 pm

The only surgery she has had is a colostomy bag. UPDATE: STILL IN HOSPITAL SINCE I POSTED THIS!!!

Swirdfish
Posts: 290
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2016 3:57 am

Re: New help NEW

Postby Swirdfish » Tue May 09, 2017 11:21 pm

tng wrote:Good evening. I really need your guys wisdom please. I have an out of town friend who's mother was diagnosed 3 days ago with rectal cancer. He came home for her 1st surgery today, which was a colostomy bag. And asked if I could "help as needed", since he was out of town.

With that said, and as a male child, he ask very little....but tells me full plan, in his terms.

She is in mid 70's, and I have no idea of stage.?

Next, they will in next few weeks begin 6-8 weeks of chemo/radiation. Upon success of shrinking will do surgery to remove mass. She will then begin another round of chemo.

She has always been a blessing, but I would like to get a bit of information on what I'm looking at for prognosis.

Do her treatment plans indicate any staging? Does age affect success rate?

I feel unfortunate she is using local, small hospital, which specializes in nothing. Not to say it's a bad hospital, but it's not a specialty hospital for anything.

Blessing to all. Thank you for providing me as much wisdom and knowledge as you can.


Hi,

I thought they would of done a clinical staging before radiation, surgery or any chemo. This gives the surgeon and ONC an indication of how successfully radiation was and also gives the surgeon an idea of affected lymph nodes and T size of the tumour before he operates. That's how I thought it works.

The clinical staging can be done by CT, or MRI. Although it may not produce a true estimate of the true staging, it still gives an idea of the tumour size and how far its grown through the different layers in the rectum and mesorectum and any suspicious lymph nodes.

Maybe you can request one before radiation starts.

Has she had scans? if so ask for the scan report.
06/2016 Went in for colonoscopy came out with a tumor. Age 35
12cm from verge at junction. Rectal cancer.
Clinical stage T3 NO MO
Temp illestomy
Completed 5FU and Radiation
LAR surgery planned 13 Oct 2016
Completed ULAR surgery 11-10-2016.
0/22 nodes
pT3 N0 M0 R1
Stage 2A

Pathology reviewed and changed
ypT3 N0 M0 R0

Started folfox 21-11-2016
5-4-17 NED
Reversal 12-4-17


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