New Treatments???

hpat

My husband has been battling stomach cancer for the last 14 months. He has had some response to chemotherapy both times he was on it. We were hoping that he would have a surgery that would remove it from his stomach and peritoneal cavity and then treat his cavity with a chemo during the surgery. When they opened him he was not a candidate so they just sewed him back up. They said he needed to go back to chemo as he seemed to respond to this. He is also getting some badly needed nutritional and pain therapy this time. He has become eligible for some trials, but I want to know if anyone has found a treatment that has been helpful to them. Any suggestions on who to contact or what we can look into would be greatly appreciated.

Pat

ecaps

Hi! I'm sorry to hear your husband is having such a hard time. My husband was diagnosed in June 2005 with adenocarcinoma of the GE junction. After chemo/radiation, surgery and more chemo, thankfully, he is in remission and doing well at this point.

His treatment was 25 sessions of radiation plus chemo. Chemo consisted of cis-platinum, taxotere and 120 hour drip of 5FU with one week on and two weeks off. He was very, very sick through this and spent 3 different times in the hospital. His weight dropped from 175 to 120. He seemed to do wonders for him because the tumors had shrunk enough that he was able to have surgery although by the time surgery came it had protruded through his stomach to the liver. They also resected his liver. Eight weeks after surgery he had six more rounds of chemo that consisted of cis-platinum and camptosar (I'll have to ask if there was a third one because I'm thinking there was.) As of March 2007 his pet scan was clear and so far they have all remained that way.

We (rather he but sometimes you feel like it is you too) had an amazing surgeon. Dr. Peter Muscarella from Ohio State University Medical Center. I am not sure where you leave but they have an oustanding cancer center with wonderful doctors and nurses. I think they also have a help line. You might search there web page.

I'll be praying for your family!

ringmaster38

Dear hpat
I would go to the largest teaching hospital in your area and get another opinion. You need some place where they treat a high volume of cancer patients. I went to MD Anderson in Houston Texas where there is a specialty in stomach cancer. A Dr. Jaffer Ajani there is one of the leading experts. You have to keep after the docs and make sure they level with you on their experience and the options available. My thoughts are with you in your time of trouble.