Dad's visit to Oncologist......

debs38uk · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:07 pm Post subject: Dad's visit to Oncologist......

Me and dad had appointment with medical oncologist last week to discuss treatment options. She told us that the tumour measured 25mm x 20mm x 15mm, and it was all removed. Except one of the margins was not as clear as they would have liked due to the tumour pressing up against blood vessels. They removed 10 lymph nodes and it had spread to one of them. They say that the cells are 'well diferentiated', which I understand to be a good thing. As for the staging, I asked the doctor and she said it is classed as T3 N1A Mx. Dad has decided to go for chemo although the doctor did say there are no guarantees that it will 'work' in preventing the cancer from coming back. His first lot of chemo will begin on April 16th (to give his drain sites chance to hel up properly) - the drug is 5-FU.

Does anyone here have any experience of 5-FU? The doctor said dad will know he is on chemo but the symptoms shouldn't be unbearable. But that is all we know about it.

Thanks for reading. Debbie x

freeio · Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:34 am Post subject: About 5-FU

What I had was not 5-FU but Xeloda, which is an oral chemo agent which is supposed to turn into 5-FU once it is in the body. The side effects for me were primarily exhaustion, and then after a couple of weeks the skin on my hands and feet peeled off. This is normal for this class of drugs. It was inconvenient and left my hands and feet sore, but that was the only real problem.

Since then, they have changed my treatment to infusion of Gemzar, which is a more recent chemo agent. My cancer continues to grow slowly (I am in stage IV) but nothing is happening quickly any more.

Please be aware that none of the drugs mentioned are really sold as a cure, but they can help slow down the advancement of pancreatic cancer.

If you are interested in my experience, please see my cancer blog which is linked below.

Best Regards,

Marty
_________________
-------------------------------------------------
whipple procedure, Oct. 21, 2004
28 days of radiation
56 days of Chemo using Xeloda
diagnosed as progressive recurrent pancreatic adenocarcinoma (Stage IV) Jun. 20, 2006
was treated with gemcitabine, oxaliplatin, and tarceva, which all failed.
Cancer blog: http://diehlmartin.com/cancer.html

debs38uk

Hi Marty

Thanks for replying.
As far as I am aware my dad is having this chemo as a 'mopping up' treatment rather than specifically aimed at a tumour that is left in-situ. The Oncologist explained that Gemzar is used (in the UK anyway) for patients whose cancer has returned, whereas for dad the line of treatment is 5FU. The cancer is gone for the time being, although I do know that there is a risk of it returning and so having chemo may delay it, if it were to return.
All I can do is hope for the best for him, and know that he is now in God's hands, which is where I like to think we all are anyway.
Have a good day today (we are already a considerable way through the afternoon here!)
Take care, Debbie x

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