stage 3a lung cancer...what treatment if any?

pbj11 · Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 1388

Uneasy -- Typically if you have a lower stage and it recurs, you are staged either at that original stage with the addition of recurrence after the stage. (Ex. Stage 2a with recurrence.) Most just move it to whatever the recurrence actually is and that can be any higher stage, not just stage III. A lot of people go from say Stage 2a or b to Stage IIIb or IV. It's dependent solely on where any new growth occurs. The delineation that doctor's make between "curable" and "not curable, but treatable" is between Stage IIIa and IIIb. As I said above, palliative is just a word and the hopes run high for this to be treated as a chronic condition, even for late stage diagnoses. If all components come together in the right "cosmic" way for a patient, they can be treated as chronic and let's hope that this is where all of our friends here land, no matter what their stage. I wanted to tell you that I know what they suspected about your first x-ray -- that it was an "artifact" on the film. I love that word. It makes me think of some archaeological expedition going on in someone's body. LOL

Mary -- I think I was answering in a generalized way about looking back. As you can see from two of the above posters in this thread, the professionals obviously dropped the ball and that outrages me, so I heartily concur about getting ALL reports. Knowing that doesn't change where you are sitting now. I played the "gosh, he had a small cough for months before any overt symptoms showed up and had we caught it earlier" game with myself over my husband. He was the one to teach me to accept where we were and deal with it.

It does seem, given that lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in the U.S. and world, doctors should be more heads-up about the chances of it occurring and be more vigilant when obvious things show up on routine x-rays. We stumble into the medical world pretty blindly and learn a whole lot very fast.

Take care all,
PBJ
_________________
Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.

Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

maryaz

Pbj; I agree about always getting copies of reports. I wondered if anyone had ever made it known that a test had been done 12 to 18 months prior and the patient just not informed that something had been overlooked. Like the 2 you were referring to that dropped the ball. I don’t think that is exactly where I would want to be treated at a future date.

Mistakes happen but in this field it needs to really be watched. Maybe I am asking if there is a liability of an office having a scan that was never gone over with the patient,
_________________
Mary

Husband is 67 year old Male
NSCLC - Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Chemo and Radiation Treatments together
Allergic reactions to Taxol and Taxotere.
The Story: http://www.cancerforums.net/about9079.html

dano

I agree PBJ;
I went round and round thinking about liability, from the first x-ray that showed the unconfirmed spot over 2 years prior to having it confirmed cancer and all the doctors that said, it wasn't cancer so I would not worry, it seems they should have let me worry it turns out. Before cancer, I thought they could read it in blood samples or something to be able to say it is not cancer. And CT's with contrast, I had 4 of them, and no body read cancer. I have no confidence in the doctors reading cancer at all, I don't think they know enough. But I do think they are doing the best they can, and they didn't give me the disease, only God knows where it came from. I can't be bitter to the doctors for not knowing what is hard to know. Besides, they got way better grades than I did in school. I know that the Oncologists are doing for me the best my insurance will allow, I could have moved to Seattle and their cancer center work on me, I would get much the same treatments, but they would have also tried other treatments that are trial type which would have had to come out of my pockets which are empty. Plus the extra cost of staying away from home, and being away from family. I am aiming to beat the 5 year mark and more, but I don't know if I can take all the supplements that friends give me for my health, I get to feel really guilty at times. All I want sometime is a McDonald's shake and fries, why, because if I can think it, smell it and eat it without throwing up, thats good. Sorry for rambling.
God Bless
Dan
_________________
54 year old male in Hawaii
Diagnosed Nov. 9,2007 with NSCLC IV
with Mets to the lymphs and brain
Had full brain radiation treatment in Jan 08
Currently on chemo treatments every 3 weeks
with Alimta
and taking Lovenox for blood clots
Now back to work full time
http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=9993

pbj11 · Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 1388

Dano,

You eat whatever your little heart desires. My husband developed "tastes" for certain things, usually junk food, and calories were so important to him with his initial weight loss. Those milkshakes aren't going to hurt you at all. Don't rob yourself of these little nasty pleasures! As far as chemo, he went through seven lines of chemo and because he had no response to Tarceva, we felt like he was getting the best "proven" agents for treatment and it sounds like you are too. So many of the trial drugs are based on the EGFR mutation that we never sweated not being in a clinical trial because there were so many approved agents already available. That may have changed in the months since he's been gone and I haven't kept up with new treatments/clinical trials. I do believe that clinical trial participation is free though, but don't quote me.

Regarding the spot in prior tests, did they ever mention calcification? My husband had calcified nodules in his lungs detected about 17 years prior. If yours was a cancer spot two years ago, then you have slow growing cancer and that's probably a good thing. We can't go back in time, so I think you've adopted a good attitude.

Have you asked about other anti-nausea medications? There are many good ones out there, albeit expensive. Most doctors have freebies at the office to try.

As far as well meaning friends, it goes without saying that any supplement should be cleared with the docs so it doesn't interfere with treatment. But you probably already knew that! Very Happy

Gosh, you weren't rambling in the least or you've never read some of my posts. Now there is some serious rambling! Rolling Eyes

Good luck and prayers for you Dano.

PBJ
_________________
Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.

Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

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