Stage I local recurrence

keff

On her colonoscopy last year, my Mom had a large polyp which was found to be cancerous. It was very low in the colon, close to the rectum. She had a resection. Lab results were no lymph node involvement and Stage I cancer. We were told they got it all, she was "cured", and there was no follow up for a year. On her 1 year colonoscopy, her colon was clean except for a little inflammation around the surgical site. We were told it was extremely unlikely it was cancer, but that they were doing biopsies of the area just to be "safe". The biopsies came back showing cancer. We have an appointment with her surgeon next week. Has anyone been through something similar? If so, was your cancer recurrence limited to the area of the surgical site? Anyone know of any success or long term survival stories with a second surgery? We are stunned and scared right now.

Patrusha

Hi Keff.... sorry for your mom's recurrence. But, yes, there are lots of success stories of people who have had to have more than one surgery. I'd be interested to see if they consider your mom's new growth to be stage I, meaning it hasn't invaded the colon very far. If that is the case that will still be good news indeed, especially if the margins of the resected tissue are found to be clear of cancer. Don't lose hope. There is much hope to have in your mom's case!

spongebob

Keff -

Patrusha's right. I wonder if they just didn't get good clean margins when they did her initial resection.

Should be good to go after this surgery - are they doing it laproscopically?

- SpongeBob

keff

spongebob said:

Keff -

Patrusha's right. I wonder if they just didn't get good clean margins when they did her initial resection.

Should be good to go after this surgery - are they doing it laproscopically?

- SpongeBob

Thank you both for responding and for your words of encouragement. Last time because of the angle she had kind of a combination surgery. It was a hand assisted lapro -less than a full open surgery, but more than a normal lapro. We won't know until next week what the plan is this time, but I suspect it will probably be the same since the cancer is at the old surgical site.

Unknown

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Kanort

Hi Keff,

I'm sorry about your mom's situation. Thank goodness they biopsied the "inflammation." Of course you are stunned and scared, but I think everything has been found relatively quickly and she will do well. Please keep us updated on her healing path.

Oh, and I wonder how many lymph nodes did they check? It is my understanding that 30 is the magical number. Sometimes if they biopsy only a few it is not an adequate number to determine involvement.
Hugs,

Kay

vinny3

I had a local excision for low rectal cancer but had chemoradiation first to shrink it. It actually looked like it was gone but did recur in the same area. But I was having scans and a rectal ultrasound every 4 months. With the recurrance I had an AP resection and am having chemo now. There is no evidence of spread but I am considered Stage 11 by my onc. Treatment should be aggressive. Make sure your mother gets more than one opinion as to what to do next. Where are you located? Has she seen an oncologist?
Your mother is very lucky to have you helping her as it requires some very difficult decisions.

****

keff

vinny3 said:

I had a local excision for low rectal cancer but had chemoradiation first to shrink it. It actually looked like it was gone but did recur in the same area. But I was having scans and a rectal ultrasound every 4 months. With the recurrance I had an AP resection and am having chemo now. There is no evidence of spread but I am considered Stage 11 by my onc. Treatment should be aggressive. Make sure your mother gets more than one opinion as to what to do next. Where are you located? Has she seen an oncologist?
Your mother is very lucky to have you helping her as it requires some very difficult decisions.

****

Congratulations on staying cancer free Babs. They did not do a six month because it was so contained and they were so sure they had gotten it all and there would be no further problems. Kanort, I think they checked 23 lymph nodes, so not quite the 30 you described, but still quite a few and all were clear. I think the doctors are as surprised as we are that it came back. Her gastroenterologist says that in his whole medical career (over 30 years), he has only seen this happen with 2 patients in her situtation. Good luck Vinny. We are in OK. We have not seen an oncologist. Last time just the gastro and the surgeon. We are just a few days in this time and will be seeing the surgeon today. I am going to ask to review the pathology report and I think I am going to ask to have it sent to another lab for a second opinion since this type of Stage I recurrence is apparently pretty rare. I've heard that it is possible that cells from a merely inflamed area (which we know hers was) can mimic malignancy somewhat and there have been instances where pathologists have made mistakes in that situation. It can't hurt to at least double check. We also plan to ask for a CT scan to check for spread before jumping right into surgery again. Thanks everyone and if anyone else has any suggestions or helpful words, we would love to hear them.