Hi Teddybear
Welcome to Colon Talk. You'll find lots of sympathetic folks here in situations similar to yourself.
Sorry to hear of your diagnosis. Getting a cancer diagnosis just plain sucks.
IMO you're doing yourself a great service by finding out as much as possible about your treatment options. You've received great advice so far, so I'll just let you know about your options from my own vantage point.
I'm in a similar situation to you being stage 2a. Only difference I have rectal cancer, and it sounds like you have colon cancer, so you won't be getting radiation. Seems like your options are:
1. no additional chemo, just blood work and scanning at regular intervals
I see that neither oncologist you have seen has recommended this option, butt I think if you were to continue to get other opinions you would eventually find one who would recommend this, especially since it sounds like you have no other negative prognostic features. Here's a link discussing prognostic factors, if you're interested.
https://wjso.biomedcentral.com/articles ... 016-0826-42). Xeloda (or the intravenous equivalent 5-FU). This has been the treatment option for a long time. With Xeldoda you avoid the intravenous element of treatment. You don't need a port (
https://www.cancer.net/navigating-cance ... -treatment. more information on ports). Butt like Jaynee said you need to remember to take the pills, and optimally they should be about 12 hours apart taken with food.
There are also side effects associated with Xeloda, notably nausea and hand/foot syndrome, a condition where your hands and feet can become irritated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemother ... l_erythema. It's unpleasant butt can usually be managed. For the record, this is the option that I chose. My onc initially recommended FOLFOX, I countered with Xeloda, and he said that was a perfectly reasonable alternative.
3). FOLFOX. This option requires infusion and is 5-FU + oxaliplatin. You get the oxi on the infusion day, and are sent home with some sort of device where the 5-FU continues to be infused intravenously for the next couple of days. A disconnect is required at the end of the 5-FU infusion. Some people have been taught to disconnect themselves, some get a disco nurse to come to their home, and some have to return to the infusion center for disconnect.
Side effects from oxi tend to be more severe, and can be permanent. I didn't have this, so I'm attaching a link for reference.
http://www.chemocare.com/chemotherapy/d ... latin.aspxThere are variations of this combo such as XELOX, xeloda + oxaliplatin. The oxi is infused intravenously and you take the xeloda (or generic equivalent) orally.
So, you might wonder what is the benefit of FOLFOX. Especially since the side effects are quite a bit worse, and you need intravenous infusions. As far as I know, there haven't been scientific studies to determine the percentage benefit of the addition of oxi in the strictly stage 2 patient. I kind of recall my onc saying somewhere in the 3% range. So if you have an 85% chance of being disease free at the 5 year mark, the addition of oxaliplatin would increase your chances to 88%. Only you can determine if the risk is worth it. Don't let someone bully you into deciding on what is in their best interest as opposed to yours. As Jaynee noted, some less scrupulous oncs like to prescribe treatment options that benefit their pocketbook, as opposed to their patients best interest.
Wow, I'm not usually this long winded, butt hopefully it may help.
peanut