bwarfel
New User
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1
Location: Fayetteville, NC
|
 Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:54 pm Post subject: Re: Cure |
 |
|
Hi,
My wife, who is 53 and a non-smoker, has stage 4 nsclc. In July 2004 A PET scan suggested 2B disease. In September the cancer was removed and she was restaged at 3B. She began carbo/taxol and completed the usual cycles. At that point scans revealed mets to the bone and brain. It's possible that she was stage 4 from the beginning. She began 3 weeks of whole-brain radiation and stereotactic radiation to the two small brain lesions. A few weeks after the completion of this she began Tarceva. After a couple of months on this scans were done and additional bone mets were revealed, as well as a new met to the liver. She began Alimta in August. Two weeks ago she had bone and CAT scans. Happily, this time all the lesions showed shrinkage. It is my understanding from talking to doctors and reading as much literature as I can, that the cancer probably cannot be cured. However, it is possible to live with it. If my wife's cancer shrinks away to undetectable levels, which is possible, there are probably still circulating cells that could begin a new tumor. My wife has lived more than a year with stage 4 disease. If you would talk to her or see her, you'd never know anything is wrong with her. Despite all the mets, she has not had any symptoms, no headaches, no bone pain, etc. She takes Alimta and Zometa once every three weeks. The first few days afterwards she doesn't feel too well, but she's continued to work, probably averaging about 36 hours a week. Her weight has remained good, but she is more tired than before all this began. My best advice is this: Go to a cancer center, the best one you can find. We're at Duke. Try to keep her in good spirits and don't let her get depressed. Also, don't let her caregivers get depressed. That happened to me but luckily I got treated quickly. Keep positive thoughts. Keep her eating. Loss of weight is not good. Exercise. Investigate alternative medicine. All the oncologists will tell you not to take antioxidents, herbs, etc, while on chemo. We haven't, but I'm still not sure if that's the best advice. As soon as the chemo ends my wife will be on mega doses. Joining a church has helped my wife immeasurably, and me too. Finally, give your mother lots of love. Having a reason to fight for good health is important. Remember, even if the cancer can't be cured, control is possible. I hope your mom does well.
Bill |
|
mikes
Senior User
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 143
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 10:31 pm Post subject: Re: Cure |
|
|
Deb,
The standard treatment for Stage IV NSCLC does not normally lead to a cure.
Check this out at http://www.nccn.org/
Start with the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology? link and follow the links to NSCLC etc.
You can also obtain a printed copy of these guidelines at many oncologist offices.
Some of the newer immunotherapy approaches show promise, but are mostly in the trial stage.
Melatonin and PSK are used fairly successfully (mostly in Europe and Japan). These may be used alone or with chemotherapy, You can check out the trials etc. for these at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed which is the place doctors and clinics go to check things out.
There is also a fairly expensive dietary supplement called Dr. Sun's Soup which is patented and can also has an 8 page report on the NIH link above. This soup claims a 14 year survivor.
You might want to check out http://www.cancernet.com/ which is a clinic in the United States which looks very good. It uses immunotherapy and melatonin as well as conventional treatment in combination.
Hope this helps,
Mike |
|
Search 
Email Digests
Register to post
Profile 
Check private messages 
Log in
What is this ?
We subscribe to the HONcode principles. Verify here. All content and posts are copyright.
