Hello. Some background of my mum. My mum is a stage IV patient who had tried both Folfox and Folfiri with Avastin for chemo. She showed good response to the former while poor response to the later that her CEA is now increasing from 9 to 100.
CT scan was done two weeks before and showed more nodules in lungs. However, she suspected a swollen and harden mass near her anus as a new site of spread that no surgeon or onco would do anything about it because they told us the only solution is to go on chemo. (We are from HK, btw, that most doctors are quite conservative towards stage IV cancer)
Now the onco announced there are no more new drugs in public hospital that could treat my mum, and they don't think Folfiri is doing the right job, so they suggested my mum to take a 3-month chemo break even though her CEA kept raising.
We are now trying to figure out other options. New drugs from private onco are expensive and this has been regarded as the last resort of ours. We are now waiting for chances to get mum into some drug trials. Also, onco told us there are oral drugs (not xelox) for patients like her, but the effectiveness of the drug is questionable that 95% of patient is not responding well to the oral meds.
At the same time, I received some information that high dose of vitamin C could possibly improve the situation of stage IV patients? I am not sure about the effects but I guess having some supplement right now would not be that bad?
Any opinions and experiences could be shared? Thanks so much!