Radiation

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pevvy
pevvy Member Posts: 14
edited March 2014 in Ovarian Cancer #1
My mom is now under way with radiation treatment to hopefully shrink her tumor which is located in the pelvis area. She has ovarian cancer but it has settled more near her rectum. They tried 3 treatments of chemo before they discovered the mass did not shrink any and there fore she could not go through with the debulking surgery. It appears she benefited from the chemo in that the cancer is contained...but, alas, no shrinkage. Now they want to try daily radiation and weekly lower dose of chemo.

Here's the question...I've been following this board since she was diagnosed in August. I don't see much about radiation treatment. Just trying to get a sense of what to anticipate. She's doing okay now, but is beginning to have side effects and is worried about skin irritations.

Thanks for any information. Linda

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  • Hissy_Fitz
    Hissy_Fitz Member Posts: 1,834
    #2
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    Linda...
    I don't know anyone
    Linda...

    I don't know anyone who has received radiation treatments for ovarian cancer. My understanding was that it's not done, usually, in the USA. I have no idea why.

    Carlene
  • msfanciful
    msfanciful Member Posts: 559
    #3
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    Hi Linda,
    First; I am so
    Hi Linda,

    First; I am so sorry to hear your mother is fighting this cancer. I too am an ovarian cancer survivor(stage IV) of three years now. I am currently on my third round of chemo treatment.

    My understanding from my oncologist (who I consider to be a Godsend because she is brutally blunt), is that radiation for this type of cancer is usually not very effective in that it can only spot-treat an area and it's use does not systemically treat cancer cells that may have escaped throughout the body which is why I believe intravaneous treatment is treatment of choice.

    This subject is very close and personal for me (use of radiation that is) because once I realized I was going to have to fight this cancer like I've never fought before? In my moment of desperation I began looking for all possible treatments and through all of my infusions of chemo-treatment I became upset because "why wasn't my oncologist trying radiation with me?" After all before having a personal experience with cancer, all I ever knew was that radiation was the treatment/cure-all for everything. Right? So I posed this question to her and that's the answer(above) she gave me.

    She also said to add insult to injury, sometimes radiation treatments have a tendency to create additional problems/side-effects over time long after the treatments have ended i.e. scaring of certain tissues in the area of treatment which can over time create problems like blockages (due to the scar tissue invading areas nearby).

    Now please keep in mind I am not saying no to radiation, because there certain instances when radiation is the best choice to take and your mom's doctor obviously has selected this one because of the area in which the tumor is located. I'm just educating you on the fact as to why oncologists generally do not like to use radiation on gynelogical cancers particularly in the abdominal region. It's just difficult to effectively treat tumors in that area.

    But for instance the main treatment of choice of breast-cancers are...radiation. Again because the tissues of the breast areas are easier to reach thus treat.

    You just sounded like you needed some info on this, and through my experience with the issue of radiation as a treatment, I hope I've resolved some of them for you.

    Take care,

    Sharon
  • BonnieR
    BonnieR Member Posts: 1,526 Member
    #4
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    Prayers for you both
    Dearest Linda,

    I have only met 2 women in my seven years of this journey, with ovarian cancer that have had radiation. One had a mass on her rectum and the other her vaginal wall. I don't know why but seems most aren't given this option. Anyway, they had the fatigue and some red areas from rads, I would suggest maybe checking the breast cancer for more information on radiation. I do want to say it did destroy the cancer, so prayers this works for your mom too. God Bless Bonnie
  • lindaprocopio
    lindaprocopio Member Posts: 1,980
    #5
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    BonnieR said:

    Prayers for you both
    Dearest Linda,

    I have only met 2 women in my seven years of this journey, with ovarian cancer that have had radiation. One had a mass on her rectum and the other her vaginal wall. I don't know why but seems most aren't given this option. Anyway, they had the fatigue and some red areas from rads, I would suggest maybe checking the breast cancer for more information on radiation. I do want to say it did destroy the cancer, so prayers this works for your mom too. God Bless Bonnie

    You'll find lots of radiation experience on the UTERINE board.
    I don't have ovarian cancer, but instead a rare form of aggressive recurrent edometrial (uterine) cancer that mimics papillary serous ovaraian cancer in chemo treatment and prognosis (called UPSC). But the main difference in treatment for UPSC vs OVC, is that most of us undergo external pelvic radiation and internal vaginal brachytherapy radiation. You will find LOTs of discussions about radiation by using the Search box on the Uterine cancer discussion board here.

    With UPSC you have one shot after your debulking surgery to be cured and completely eradiacte the cancer from your body, for once it returns it is like ovarian in that it is sneaky and hides microscopically to catch you later on. So, after my 6 initial rounds of carbo/taxol, in my battle for that 1 chance at being cured, I also had 28 rounds of external pelvic IMRT radiation and 3 rounds of internal brachytherapy. So I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. The type of pelvic radiation I had was a broad field, and adjuvant therapy in that I had no visible cancer at that time. The "IMRT" radiation is top of the line, CT-scan and computer guided to reduce 'friendly fire' on more vulnerable organs and bones. I have some residual stranding in my bowels that gives me 1 loose BM each morning, but nothing that greatly affects my day-to-day life. My bone marrow never completely recovered from the radiation moving over my hip bones and that makes getting chemo now more of a challenge with my blood counts chronically low. I have chubby ankles most days, and that lymphodema is related to the radiation of my remaining pelvic lymph nodes. And, from the brachytherapy, I have to use a vaginal dilator daily the rest of my life to keep scar tissue from forming in my vagina (really no worse than insertung a tampon and leaving it in 10 minutes each morning.) That's the only lasting side effects of all of the radiation I had. & Unfortunately my cancer did return.

    I asked about radiation for those with ovarian cancer at the time of my own radiation treatments last May and June, as external pelvic radiation is a bit controversial even for my cancer. I was told that typically ovarian cancer spreads to organs that cannot be safely irradiated, and the additional scar tissue radiation causes makes too many problems later on for a cancer that usually spreads into adjacent areas. (My own cancer, UPSC, is just as likely, or even MORE likely, to travel through the bloodstream and lymph system and end up in more distant regions.)
  • pevvy
    pevvy Member Posts: 14
    #6
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    lindaprocopio said:

    You'll find lots of radiation experience on the UTERINE board.
    I don't have ovarian cancer, but instead a rare form of aggressive recurrent edometrial (uterine) cancer that mimics papillary serous ovaraian cancer in chemo treatment and prognosis (called UPSC). But the main difference in treatment for UPSC vs OVC, is that most of us undergo external pelvic radiation and internal vaginal brachytherapy radiation. You will find LOTs of discussions about radiation by using the Search box on the Uterine cancer discussion board here.

    With UPSC you have one shot after your debulking surgery to be cured and completely eradiacte the cancer from your body, for once it returns it is like ovarian in that it is sneaky and hides microscopically to catch you later on. So, after my 6 initial rounds of carbo/taxol, in my battle for that 1 chance at being cured, I also had 28 rounds of external pelvic IMRT radiation and 3 rounds of internal brachytherapy. So I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. The type of pelvic radiation I had was a broad field, and adjuvant therapy in that I had no visible cancer at that time. The "IMRT" radiation is top of the line, CT-scan and computer guided to reduce 'friendly fire' on more vulnerable organs and bones. I have some residual stranding in my bowels that gives me 1 loose BM each morning, but nothing that greatly affects my day-to-day life. My bone marrow never completely recovered from the radiation moving over my hip bones and that makes getting chemo now more of a challenge with my blood counts chronically low. I have chubby ankles most days, and that lymphodema is related to the radiation of my remaining pelvic lymph nodes. And, from the brachytherapy, I have to use a vaginal dilator daily the rest of my life to keep scar tissue from forming in my vagina (really no worse than insertung a tampon and leaving it in 10 minutes each morning.) That's the only lasting side effects of all of the radiation I had. & Unfortunately my cancer did return.

    I asked about radiation for those with ovarian cancer at the time of my own radiation treatments last May and June, as external pelvic radiation is a bit controversial even for my cancer. I was told that typically ovarian cancer spreads to organs that cannot be safely irradiated, and the additional scar tissue radiation causes makes too many problems later on for a cancer that usually spreads into adjacent areas. (My own cancer, UPSC, is just as likely, or even MORE likely, to travel through the bloodstream and lymph system and end up in more distant regions.)

    Radiation
    Thank you all very much for your responses. I thought that radiation treatment was not the typical protocol for OVC. But your response confirmed what I was thinking. The location of the cancer is the big difference. When the ER doctor discovered her tumor, he did this by performing a rectal exam in an attempt to disempact her. That's when he quickly stopped, explaining he felt the mass. From there the journey of dealing with ongoing constipation changed to this fight with cancer. At first they thought it was rectal cancer and she had to have a colostomy surgery to help relieve her. Then they found through the biopsy that it was actually ovarian cancer.

    Since the chemo has not shrunk things, they have decided to give the radiation a try. We know it is not going to go away, the goal is to just give my mother some relief from the pressure.

    Thanks again for your input, I'll try out the uterine cancer or maybe even rectal cancer board for more info on radiation.

    Keep fightin Ladies!

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