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Hi. I had seen tables giving out different values of different factors such as M Band, kappa lamba ratio, beta 2 globulin etc and their prognosis, but can’t seem to find it now. Kindly send me a link to that chapter/lesson. Thanks
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ReplyOh David – thank you soooo much. You are the only person that I have heard from about this and I am so eager to here whatever you can find. At this point I’m thinking that I may opt for the chemo and radiation instead of a lobectomy as I fear my post operative surgery will leave me an invalid and copd is progressive as well so how long would I live and how will my life be. Please forward anything else you can find and thank you again so much.
ReplyHi Maxine-
Okay, if you are feeling more comfortable with chemo and radiation as your therapy, please read the links below that talk about “integrative” therapies- if your surgeon talked about the high probability of relapse, consider nutritional supplementation to enhance your chemo and radiation while you reduce the toxicity. These supplements may help reduce the risk of relapse.
If you are interested, email me the names of the chemotherapies you will take and I can research specific supplements that may help.
Curcumin and NSCLC-
Resveritrol and NSCLC-
Grape Seed Extract and NSCLC-
Milk thistle and NSCLC-
Let me know if you have any questions- thanks – David Emerson
ReplyI have non small cell lung cancer squiemish stage 11A and have a dilemma. I also have copd with 50% lung capacity in each lung. If I opt for surgery, there’s no guarantee that I won’t be on oxygen after surgery. I can also have radiation with chemotherapy instead of surgery. I was told by the thoracic surgeon that my prognosis with surgery is much better 50% then the radiation and chemo and he said that those other procedure prognosis would be in the single digit and would most likely come back. I just don’t know what to do. Does anyone have copd and removal of lower left lobe of the lung, a lobectomy which the surgeon wants to do and what is the quality of their life afterwards (are they on oxygen full-time. Are there any survivors beyond five -years with the same type of cancer that I have? Please help.
ReplyHi Maxine-
I am sorry to read of your cancer diagnosis. I will write my comments below based on my thinking that “non small cell lung cancer squiemish stage 11A” is actually “non small cell lung cancer squamous cell stage 1A. If in fact your diagnosis was NSCLC of stage 1a, then surgery may be curative. I believe that the definition of stage 1A means that your tumor is less than 3 centimeters. This is good.
Now, on to your choices. Yes, surgical removal of the tumor has a better prognosis than chemo and radiation. But as you point out, you already suffer from COPD and post surgical lung function is very important to you.
Please read the info linked and excerpted below about cryotherapy for nsclc- this article may apply to you-
“Cryosurgery is suited for patients with lung cancer who are not considered for lung resection because… poor respiratory function and with tumor recurrence following radiotherapy, chemotherapy or lung resection, and those patients who have localized lung cancer but refuse to receive operative therapy….
Cryosurgery for lung cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3426750/
I must research more- I will email you again tomorrow- thanks and hang in there-
David Emerson
ReplyHi Lucy-
I am sorry to read of your husband’s CRC diagnosis. However you seem to be aware of many of the difficult issues. I will try to break down your post to address each concern. This will be a long reply- please be sure to ask me to clarify any questions you may have.
First and foremost is whether or not your husband’s cancer has spread to other organs or lymph nodes. You say the stage is “possibly 3c.” The staging relates to the aggressiveness of his treatment. More chemo is more toxic- more toxicity is risked due to how much his cancer has spread. For the sake of this reply I will assume that your husband’s CRC is “locally advanced operable colon cancer. ”
While I am conservative about the use of toxic anything in cancer therapy, I acknowledge that alternative therapies do NOT act fast enough to treat a serious or advanced stage. Shrinking the tumor is secondary to your husband’s overall survival.
1)”he undergo chemo and radiation before the surgery to reduce the size…” pre-adjuvant chemo is the method to attempt to shrink tumors before surgery. I will link studies below to highlight the risks/benefits of this approach.
This is an excerpt from a study that I think applies to your-
“Although lacking disease progression or survival outcomes, results from this feasibility study showed significant tumor downstaging compared with the postoperative group (P=0.04). There was also less apical node involvement (1% vs. 20%, P<0.0001) and fewer positive margins (4% vs. 20%, P=0.002). Blinded centrally scored tumor regression grading showed moderate or greater regression of 31% vs. 2% (P=0.0001), favoring the preoperative group. The study concluded that preoperative chemotherapy in locally advanced operable primary colon cancer was feasible with acceptable toxicity and perioperative morbidity."
To read this study cut and paste this url into your browser- http://www.atmjournal.org/article/view/1614/2301
Based on my experience “alternative” therapies will not achieve the results you need. Please consider integrative therapies with those pre or neo adjuvant chemotherapy to “downstage” your husband’s cancer. I will link therapies below- Let me know if your proposed cancer therapies are different from the one’s I list.
Grapeseed Extract-
Below is an excerpt from a list of integrative therapies for a standard colon cancer chemo regimen. I hope these integrative therapies apply- the studies cite the ability to REDUCE toxicity while ENHANCING efficacy of the chemotherapy.
I excerpted the info above not because you mentioned “Bevacizumab (Avastin)” but because Avastin is an angiogenesis inhibitor. Curcumin, omega 3 fatty acids, resveritrol, vitamin d3, milk thistle, green tea extract, grape seed extract are natural angiogenesis inhibitors (that I have been taking for years).
http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/colon-cancer/chemotherapy.html
Further, angiogenesis inhibitors have been show to both enhance conventional chemo while they reduce toxicity. I will excerpt info below.
5-FU and curcumin-
https://www.google.com/search?q=5-Fluorouracil%2C+curcumin&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb#channel=sb&q=neuropathy+curcumin+oxaliplatin&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
Oxaliplatin and green tea extract-
Oxaliplatin and omega 3s
Lucy- I have tried to address the main issues. Please reply if you have questions or comments. Hang in there.
David Emerson
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