Postby LMighty » Sat Aug 26, 2017 1:13 pm
Hi everyone, sorry I haven't posted for quite a while.
Update #7: The past weeks were full of ups and downs. The good news was that the chest + abdomen CT scan confirmed that no blood clot is present, and that peritoneal met is indeterminate, at worst minimal despite months of ascites accumulation. The bad news though was that our onc thinks that my mom's left lung suffered too much structural damage from both tumour invasion and scarring, meaning that even if she achieves NED, its function is mostly lost and irreversible. In other words, it is very likely that my mom will need supplemental oxygen for the rest of her life, NED or not, which she has been on all the time since July. Onc even suggested stopping treatment due to the possibility of relying on only one lung and compromised quality of life.
My mom and our family is prepared and determined, so we continued treatment.
The second cycle started 10 days ago with lowered dose of cobimetinib (3 tablets-> 2 tablets per day). We are draining 400-600 ml of ascites daily but the recent X-ray (last Thursday) showed visible improvement in both lungs. Most side effects are well managed so far except for constipation and fatigue. Our onc believes the disease is at least stable, and we briefly discussed a modified regimen for long term use in the future.
Supporter to my mom (64 yr); KRAS wild type; MSS
2012: DX Stage I, rectal cancer; resection and colostomy
5/16: DX Stage III, mets found; right groin lymph node and soft tissue
5-6/16: Radiation + Xeloda
7/16: DX Stage IV, pleural effusion; cancer cells found in fluid
7-12/16: Xelox + Avastin X 6
1/17: Clean PET scan, NED
2/17: Pleural effusion; recurrence
4/17: Iri + Erb X 3
5/17: Ascites; Chemo failed
6/17: Keytruda X 1
7/17: TECENTRIQ (atezolizumab) + COTELLIC (cobimetinib)
9/17: At peace