Dear All,
Back on December 31st. My mom was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer in the UK. After her diagnosis, the doctor said she was not a candidate for surgery since she has 7 Mets in different parts of the liver. So they started her chemotherapy process to try to reduce the tumors to the point where she will be able to have surgery. Her first line of treatment was FOLFOX, she was tolerating the chemo very well until she became fully constipated. The doctors had to operate and they placed a stomach bag. Since this was an indication that the first line of treatment was not working they moved her into FOLFIRI. For this treatment, she had 6 rounds of chemo, with the main side effect being fatigue. Some days she wanted to stay in bed all day. After the sixth round of chemo, she went for her MRI. While we were waiting for her results to come back, this past Sunday she developed pain in her abdomen close to where her uterus is. We brought her to the hospital, and they performed some tests and observed she had an infection. They also observed some progression. This is what the report says
" There has been a significant increase in the necrotic metastatic lesion within the mesentery located between the caecal pole and the distal sigmoid colon and measuring at least 56mm x 51mm" their conclusion was as follows: Significant progression of an intraperitoneal metastatic lesion extending by continuity from the rectum and located mostly between the caecal pole and the distal sigmoid colon. Associated peritoneal inflammatory changes, lymphadenopathy, and diffuse fatty stranding within the mesorectum and mesentery"
Her livers Mets are stable and the lung base is clear.
Even though we still have not had the entire scan results back, the Doctor seems very pessimistic and said it is very common this response due to her KRAS mutation. I was very upset since it seems that they are only following standard procedures and hoping for the best. I don't know what to do. I have set up an appointment with a different oncologist to have a second opinion. I live in the US and it seems the approach is more aggressive here than in the UK. I have read different posts and it seems that the surgical removal of primary cancer is the first approach for most cases here in the US. Should we look into a surgeon that is capable of doing this procedure?
Also, does anyone has experience using a high Dose of Vitamin C? Does help with the side effects? How about the cancer progression?
The last question that I have is, My sibling and I are looking to at AVASTIN for my mom's treatment. It is not covered by the NHS, but we are willing to pay for it. Does anyone have experience with AVASTIN?
Thank you in advance for any information anyone can provide me.