beach sunrise wrote:ND I have been with for almost a yr is Dr. Belanger and Mederi Center. Both have different approaches is why I use both.
rp1954 wrote:Sounds like your mom was not offered a compelling chemo and followup monitoring option, conventional or otherwise.
e.g. risk based biomarkers that highly predict who recurs without correct molecular treatments, no matter how unimpressive the molecule (cheap, lower toxicity, registered for other conditions), or more aggressive blood monitoring.
A compelling marker pair is the basis of adding cimetidine early on, for heavily CA199+CSLEX1 biomarked stage II/III patients, do it or die in the heavy marker cases despite an otherwise very favorable prognosis. CSLEX1 staining is not readily available in the US, but CA199 covers a lot of the probability.
This is one example of a possible treatment-marker/test pairing to add near initial diagnosis. I am not thinking cimetidine so much at this late date, especially w/o CA199 but if serum CA199 is high, in your shoes I might pursue the tissue stains in some circumstances, and CA199 has other implications.
There are many such pregnant possibilities with even less documentation - aspirin, celecoxib, PSK, vitamin C, D3, K2, flavonoids.
Your mom may be concerned of about treatment toxicity - conventional options are usually pretty intimidating.
We certainly were concerned about chemo but had the advantage of knowing after the first month, from surgical pathology, her supplemental package had worked. So we combined a mild daily chemo strategy added to the already demonstrated supplements and slowly tested more, based on papers or individual drs. The trick is to get enough immune and chemo activity without the big side effects for daily, long term use.
You need to be aware of overall options and that many non conventional options are not offered with full one stop shopping.
Or even offered at all, if decades have expired with their researcher. We parcel out our medical support and fill gaps at home.
Your mom's conventional options are probably:
Folfox + biological (Avastin or Erbitux/Vectibix);
Folfiri + biological (Avastin or Erbitux/Vectibix);
a Xeloda variant of the above;natural
or maybe, a PD1 inhibitor.
Patients often add some natural support during this time period, but may have tensions between their oncologist and their natural medicine support.
We had tissue work that suggested 5FU + the alternatives could actually beat oxi-, gem- or irinotecan combinations, as well as be used daily.
One somewhat popular option here that has no obvious major medical support right now is,
(chronomodulated) UFT or Xeloda + celecoxib + aimed adjuncts/supplements.
After 2+ years of daily chronomodulated UFT+cimetidine+aimed supplements, we did chronomodulated UFT + celecoxib + aimed supplements for years without the degradation and breakdown by normal chemo, precisely to stop circulatory and lymphatic spread. Your mom has much more serious lymphatic spread now than my wife and is harder to control. UFT is not approved in the US. Also the hydronephrosis is a complication that may or may not resolve with treatment.
Because of coxibs' noteriety I was reluctant about celecoxib until necessity favored it, and it worked but my wife also had episodes of hypercoagulability that had to be timely identified and dealt with, whether coxib related or not. Very definitely a skill - risk - benefit - QoL balance required there.
From my point of view, the best and quickest first estimate is post a CBC differential and a superchemistry (Chemo 20+++, LDH with CA199, more inflammation markers) up for discussion, fragility, and comparison. Incomplete bloodwork is a common problem that has to directly resolved by the patient, we can literally die waiting for agreement from insurance and drs.
beach sunrise wrote:Yes, what rp says about expanding bloodwork is very important. There are so many posts here about it. If you get resistance from the onc like I did just go out on your own, order the panels from life extension and study to learn how to read them (what they are for), pair them for other things that might be going on, look for trends good or bad. Research for answers to improve. A good ND or two plus an intergrative onc can help with all this.
GrouseMan wrote:My wife developed Hydronephrosis in last year prior to her passing. This was due to a tumor that was hard to visualize on CT scan growing in the peritoneum pressing on her Ureter. She had to have stents put in to keep it open. About every 4 weeks they needed to be switched out. This surfaced as back pain for the most part. In her last year she was plagued by lower back pain though no mets to her spine.
GrouseMan
Beza1422 wrote: Did they remove the tumor in the peritoneum? I appreciate this info as this is super helpful to help diagnose what is going on and hopefully be able to catch it before anything progresses. My concern is that chemo will not infiltrate the peritoneum/mesentary enough to pinpoint and target this 0.9cm tumor. I was hoping for surgery but they are refusing to do surgery and only giving her the option of conventional chemo
GrouseMan wrote:Beza1422 wrote: Did they remove the tumor in the peritoneum? I appreciate this info as this is super helpful to help diagnose what is going on and hopefully be able to catch it before anything progresses. My concern is that chemo will not infiltrate the peritoneum/mesentary enough to pinpoint and target this 0.9cm tumor. I was hoping for surgery but they are refusing to do surgery and only giving her the option of conventional chemo
My wife felt pretty good up until the final 6 months. She handled Chemo very well. In fact worked while on Chemo. As for Surgery - She was not a candidate. The Peri Met was encircling her colon from the outside. What got her is that it blocked or squeezed her colon at the end in such a way that she was throwing up Bile at the time she went into the hospital for the last time. They tried a Colostomy to relive/bypass where it was pinching her colon but that didn't work. Finally had to put a tube in her stomach, but by that time she was not getting any real nutrition and started to waste away at home under home hospice. I can tell you not something I want to watch happen again. Once cancer is in the peritoneum/mesentary its very hard to treat.
GrouseMan
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