BAC

mtngrl

My mother has stage IIIB NSCLC-BAC. She was diagnosed in Nov. 2003. She had chemo right away since her tumor was inoperable. There was no distant met. but there were small places in the all three lobes in the right lung. She has been taking Tarceva for almost a year which has shrunk some of the places(which are very small except for a medium tumor in the upper lobe) and stabilized the rest. She has no other symptoms. Her next set of scans is April 4th. We are hopeful that there has been continued shrinkage and continued stabilizaion. Since BAC is rare we have had a hard time finding others who have it. We would love to talk to someone who has been diagnosed with BAC to discuss treatments and symptoms. Just being able to share the experience with someone with a similar diagnosis would be welcome.
Thank you

reinstones1

Hi-- my mother also has stage IIIB NSCLC (adenocarcinoma). She was diagnosed in December 2005.

Although I don't have any experience with BAC, I wanted to say hello to you, and say how amazingly wonderful it is that your Mom has survived cancer for nearly 2.5 years since her diagnosis!! Congratulations!

I hope my Mom has a similar journey.

mtngrl

HI. Thanks for writing. Has your mom started treatment? IF so, what kind of treatment is she on? How is she doing? Was your mom a non-smoker? My mom wasn't a smoker and I have heard that adenocarcinoma is often the kind that affects non-smokers the most. BAC is a type of adenocarcinoma. Let me know if you have any questions. I have been to almost every oncology appointment with my mom, done scads of research, and am in the medical field. This experience with my mom having cancer has taught me to really advocate for myself and for her. Educating youself about your mom's particular type of cancer can really help guide you on what questions to ask and what treatments to push for. Just ignore the statistics and believe that your mom is different. iF you don't distance yourself from the stats it si easy to become overwhelmed and depressed. I wish your mom the best in her fight. Again, if there are any questions you might have about our experience I would be happy to share it with you. I remember what it felt like when she was first diagnosed and the months following with chemo. It can be so scary when you do not know what to expect. We feel very blessed that she has done so well. Thank you for the kind words.
Keep me posted on how your mom is doing. I, too, hope she has a similar outcome.

scungileen

Hi, your story is very uplifting and probably just what I needed to read this morning. Congratulations to you and your family. I have to tell you last night was a rough one at our house. My dad is 75 with Stage IIIB nsclc. He had a lobectomy in February 2004 with no chemo follow-up. This last April his blood levels were high and they followed him with scans until this January when he had blown into a malignant pleural effusion. It took from April until January to produce anything they could biopsy. He had three treatments of chemo when he was rushed to the hospital not being able to breath with a pleural effusion. He had a surgical procedure to drain the fluid and they shot a talc powder into his lung lining to stop any future fluid build-up. Yesterday was my dad's second chemo therapy post surgery and they told him that his cancer was aggressive, which we knew but he didn't, and they told him that his red blood levels were low. He needs to come back three times this week for shots and three times next week for shots. When I came home last night he was very depressed and not talkative. He wouldn't even take any phone calls. I am afraid he is losing his drive to fight. I honestly don't know what to tell him, because I know how difficult it is to keep having set backs. I just wish I knew if there were others out there who had a lot of set backs and if anyone had an aggressive cancer and was doing well with treatment. I wish you continued good luck. Any insight you can give would be appreciated.

mtngrl

scungileen said:

Hi, your story is very uplifting and probably just what I needed to read this morning. Congratulations to you and your family. I have to tell you last night was a rough one at our house. My dad is 75 with Stage IIIB nsclc. He had a lobectomy in February 2004 with no chemo follow-up. This last April his blood levels were high and they followed him with scans until this January when he had blown into a malignant pleural effusion. It took from April until January to produce anything they could biopsy. He had three treatments of chemo when he was rushed to the hospital not being able to breath with a pleural effusion. He had a surgical procedure to drain the fluid and they shot a talc powder into his lung lining to stop any future fluid build-up. Yesterday was my dad's second chemo therapy post surgery and they told him that his cancer was aggressive, which we knew but he didn't, and they told him that his red blood levels were low. He needs to come back three times this week for shots and three times next week for shots. When I came home last night he was very depressed and not talkative. He wouldn't even take any phone calls. I am afraid he is losing his drive to fight. I honestly don't know what to tell him, because I know how difficult it is to keep having set backs. I just wish I knew if there were others out there who had a lot of set backs and if anyone had an aggressive cancer and was doing well with treatment. I wish you continued good luck. Any insight you can give would be appreciated.

I am so sorry to hear you had such a rough night. It can really be an emotional roller coaster not to mention physically draining. While going through chemo my mom had to have several shots to boost her red blood cell levels. My mom has not had pleural effusion, but through my research I did come across a clinical trial that addressed this issue. Vanderbilt was conducting a clinical trial that withdrew a specific amount of fluid off the lung and then used that fluid to develop a vaccine. It was called G-Vax. That might be worth investigating further.
I have definitely been through the low points with my mom when I too believed that she had lost her fight. She was able to rally and I believe that your father will too. It helped my mom to hear success stories or even possibilities of treatments that might benefit her. We would often times go over all the back-up plans we had in case a particular treatment wasn't available to her or didn't work. We went through both cases as she was declined for the Vanderbilt study and the intial, traditional chemo treatment did not cause the tumor to shrink enough so she could have surgery.
It is hard to feel like you have no control over what happens, so we devised plans to at least make it feel like we had some control. If that makes any sense. There are success stories out there. Seek those out to edify yourself and your father through this. I wish you and your family the best. Keep me posted on how your father is doing.

Plymouthean

Hi. I have no firsthand information regarding BAC, but I heard about a study by the Harvard University School of Public Health, in which you may be interested. The contact is as follows: Emily Logan at (617)432-1261, or by e-mail at elogan@hsph.harvard.edu. I have no idea if this would be beneficial to you, but it may be worth investigating. Bestwishes.

mtngrl

Plymouthean said:

Hi. I have no firsthand information regarding BAC, but I heard about a study by the Harvard University School of Public Health, in which you may be interested. The contact is as follows: Emily Logan at (617)432-1261, or by e-mail at elogan@hsph.harvard.edu. I have no idea if this would be beneficial to you, but it may be worth investigating. Bestwishes.

Thanks for the Harvard information. I am so glad to know there is active research being done on BAC. I am pretty sure my mom is going to participate.
Thanks Again!

AuthorUnknown

Hi There. I do have pure BAC. There are internet support groups that deal with only BAC for caregivers and patients. I was diog in June of o4 stage 3A. I had rads and chemo. I also participated in a study at the University of Kentucky, I had scans done in Jan of this year and there was NED. My e-mail is jo752417@aol.com If I can be of any help or you would just like to chat feel free to mail me.

You and your family will be in my prayers

Jo Ann

reinstones1

mtngrl said:

HI. Thanks for writing. Has your mom started treatment? IF so, what kind of treatment is she on? How is she doing? Was your mom a non-smoker? My mom wasn't a smoker and I have heard that adenocarcinoma is often the kind that affects non-smokers the most. BAC is a type of adenocarcinoma. Let me know if you have any questions. I have been to almost every oncology appointment with my mom, done scads of research, and am in the medical field. This experience with my mom having cancer has taught me to really advocate for myself and for her. Educating youself about your mom's particular type of cancer can really help guide you on what questions to ask and what treatments to push for. Just ignore the statistics and believe that your mom is different. iF you don't distance yourself from the stats it si easy to become overwhelmed and depressed. I wish your mom the best in her fight. Again, if there are any questions you might have about our experience I would be happy to share it with you. I remember what it felt like when she was first diagnosed and the months following with chemo. It can be so scary when you do not know what to expect. We feel very blessed that she has done so well. Thank you for the kind words.
Keep me posted on how your mom is doing. I, too, hope she has a similar outcome.

Hi again-- yes, my Mom started chemo at the end of January. She's had 3 treatments so far. Every 3 weeks, Taxol and carboplatin.

She is an ex-smoker-- she quit in 1980.

I love what you said-- "ignore the statistics and believe that your Mom is different". Thanks for that, because it's been a lousy month. To be honest, I really haven't been "right" since she was diagnosed. . . I feel like I'm living a nightmare.

I'm happy to email with you through the CSN system if you'd like to stay in touch!

jadjr

What is BAC. I had stage 1a brochoalveolar cancer. Had a right upper lobeectomy and am now getting adjuvant chemo.

mtngrl

jadjr said:

What is BAC. I had stage 1a brochoalveolar cancer. Had a right upper lobeectomy and am now getting adjuvant chemo.

Hi,
BAC is an acronym for Bronchoalveolar Carcinoma, so it is what you were diagnosed with just in shortened form. How did they discover you had it? With the lobectomy are you now considered cancer free?
What kind of chemo are you taking?
That is so great they caught it early!!