now what?

hsnmp1978
hsnmp1978 Member Posts: 44
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

My husband’s treatment was over 14 days ago and I think he is feeling much better and even started his job just part time. He started to drink liquid and little bit solid food and beside not opening wide open mouth and few mouth shores he is not complaining about anything.

Today we had his ENT doctor appointment and ENT was concern about his tumor which is right side of his neck (was very big before the treatment) and he was saying that this tumor is hard not soft. And when I ask him what does it mean? He said lose or soft tumor is better than hard tumor?? So he orders for CT scan which will be doing in next two weeks.

Does anyone have experience with this? Does tumor totally go away after treatment?

My husband protocol: 35 radiations, 3 chemotherapy.

Any suggestion would be helpful

Thank you,

Hetal

 

Comments

  • ditto1
    ditto1 Member Posts: 660
    #2
    Generally yes

    although i do not want to speak for your particalar case, most including myself found the tumor shrinking during the radiation treatments and I assume the chemo treatments as well.  Not sure about hard vs. soft so maybe your doctor could be more precise.  This is a great site with people who have the answers to about everthing since we have lived it and will reply im sure. Wait to hear from them and try not to Google stuff , its old and generally unreliable and can scare you to death.  I had Base of Tongue with lymphnodes, on my left side below the ear is wear i felt the lump, after treatment it was gone, hopefully it will stay that way.  Good luck 

  • corleone
    corleone Member Posts: 312 Member
    #3
    Here’s my thought

     (take it with a grain of salt).

    Consistency of a (known) malign tumor doesn’t mean too much out of context. My guess is that if the treatment is efficient, the cancerous cell density should decrease (many would just die away) leaving behind just connective tissue (like an empty shell, if you will). Or it could have a central zone of liquefaction, due to necrosis, and the consistency would be again changed. But that’s just a speculation.

    In my specific case, (NPC stage III, undifferentiated), the tumor was extremely responsive to cisplatin. I noticed a significant reduction of the largest lymph node (that I could easily palpate) by ~50% within 2 days after the first cisplatin session (radiation couldn’t have helped much, because this was during days 3-5 of radiation). During the second session of cisplatin (3 weeks later), I could no longer feel any lump, and the nasal obstruction was gone (well, except for the mucus production that increased significantly). Too bad I had side effects (ototoxicity) that precluded the use of the third cisplatin session (but I had the carboplatin plus 5FU adjuvant chemo later on).

     

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #4
    The lump on my neck

    visably disappeared completely by the third week of rads....and could not even be felt after the 5th week.  Seems most people's lumps are gone by the end of radiation.  As far as hard vs. soft....that's something that Longtermsurvivor will know about...

    For the time being tho....BREATHE!!  He just finished treatment, and hasn't had a chance to heal much.....radiation causes a lot of damage, and that includes lumps.

    p

  • wrhbounds
    wrhbounds Member Posts: 39
    #5
    my tumor

    6X7cm left neck & 4 cm left lymph nodes that was 1999. Its been 14 years so yes it can .Stay positive 

  • Tim6003
    Tim6003 Member Posts: 1,514 Member
    #6
    wrhbounds said:

    my tumor

    6X7cm left neck & 4 cm left lymph nodes that was 1999. Its been 14 years so yes it can .Stay positive 

    Hi Hetal...

    I understand your worry.  But just rememeber every persons body does respond differently to treatments.  My lymph node and base of tongue tumor did "disolve" by the end of radiation.  I was HPV+ and pretty much the same number of treatments of rads your husband had ....my chemo was Erbitux.

    Keep us posted ....the good news is your team is on it!

    Tim

  • hsnmp1978
    hsnmp1978 Member Posts: 44
    #7
    so it can stay??

    Thank you everyone for respond.wrhbounds this is for you... so you have some lymph node left still?

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #8
    Another Disappearing Tumor..

    STGIII SCC HPV+, tonsils and a lymphnode... Tonsils came out first thing...

    Then Nine weeks (three week cycles) of Cisplatin, Taxotere and 5FU. By week 6-7, barely notice the tumor. By the end of the first nine weeks, no tumor..., CT showed no tumor either...

    But they recommended and I did continue for an additional seven weeks of concurrent weekly Carboplatin and 35 daily rads sessions...

    JG

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