Hello,
I'm glad I found this forum to share my journey and exchange with other CRC fighters.
I have a locally advanced sigmoid adenocarcinoma diagnosed in July, most likely stage 3 cancer. I had a loop colostomy done in August to avoid any blockage during neoadjuvant chemotherapy. I'm about to start round 3 of 6 cycles of FOLFOXIRI + Avastin. The plan if all goes well is to have the tumour removed by the new year and colostomy reversed.
I have a couple of questions, mainly to understand the oncologist report and the type of treatment I'm given.
- Histology report says the cells are poorly differentiated and this does not look like a good prognosis to me. Are there any statistics published about survival taking into account both stage and grade of the cancer?
Questions about pre-op staging (T3dN1Mx):
- there's no spread visible on the scans, so it's more likely T3dN1M0?
- What's the difference between T3a and T3d?
- N1 does it mean 1 lymph node involved? I supposed they see that on the scans but the real staging will be confirmed after the op.
Questions about neoadjuvant chemo
- FOLFOXIRI with Avastin is a tough treatment. I see they usually give it to stage 4 patients. However this is a neoadjuvant treatment with the aim to shrink the tumour before op because it is bulky at the moment, and kill any micro-metastases not visible on scans in the process. Anyone had the same treatment? It seems a bit unusual to me but seems like a good treatment plan.
Overall, while I want to get the best chances at getting rid of the cancer, I can't stop getting worried about my staging, grading, and maybe the possibility of this being worst than what it is already?
Lost my dad to brain cancer 3 years ago, he was gone in 5 months while I was pregnant now I have another baby, 9 months old. I have all the good reasons to fight. I feel I can go through anything, like I'm not scared of side effects, surgeries, etc. but I have a hard time not worrying about the cancer coming back at some point. I know it's stupid in a way, I'm having treatment to be able to remove the tumour, so why worry about that now?
Thank you for reading, I'm going to try to update my signature now.