Newbie - I have a question about middle of chemo treatment

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liefjasmine
liefjasmine Member Posts: 5
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hello everyone! I'm Lynne from New Orleans and was diagnosed with Stage III colon cancer in June of this year. I had colon resection and a radical hysterectomy on June 10. I had the hysterectomy because the tumor was attached to my uterus and that was the only way to get the mass out. I had 2 out of 19 nodes positive; no metastases. I am 49 years old - no family history of cancer. I have a port and have had 3 out of 8 rounds of oxaliplatin and xeloda. Number 4 treatment is coming up this Wednesday. My question is: when do the docs test or scan for things going on during chemo treatment? Will I get scanned after the 4th treatment or is all the scanning/testing done after all my treatments? Thank you for all your advice. Lynne

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  • abmb
    abmb Member Posts: 311
    #2
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    test???
    Hi, hope all is going well for you during your treatment. My husband is past his mid of treatments, folfox, he has to receive twelve and already had 7 treatments. Out of the 7 he only had 4 full treatments, and like you I thought they would do some sort of test, blood test mainly, to see if the treatments are working. I don't like to ask questions at the office, because I don't want my concerns to upset my husband, but somehow after his next treatment next week, I will ask a nurse or call the dr. myself. Take care and I do hope all goes well for you. Margaret
  • dianetavegia
    dianetavegia Member Posts: 1,942 Member
    #3
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    Hi Lynne,
    Hi Lynne and welcome. I'm not much ahead of you but will tell you how my follow up is being done.

    First, I'm (was) also Stage III but my tumor was within the colon and did not involve other organs. 5 out of 17 lymph nodes had a 'few microscopic cancer cells'. I'll be 59 in late December. I was dx'd Jan. 2nd 2009.

    I did 12 tx's of Folfox and finished them on August 14th (disconnect day). I will see my Physician's Assistant four months after that last tx, so Dec. 15th and have blood tests done then. I will have a scan four months after that, so next April.

    From what I've read, the new standards call for yearly CT scans for Stage III unless the tumor was very aggressive.

    Hope this helps. Every doctor is different and mine is a young guy on top of every new thing that hits the news or rumor mill. :o)
  • Patteee
    Patteee Member Posts: 945
    #4
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    Hi
    I was also dx'd stage 3B
    Hi
    I was also dx'd stage 3B in June 08 and finished my chemo routine in Jan 09. CT scan and PET were done before treatment started and a colonoscopy was done before my reconnect surgery in Feb 09. Nothing done during treatment. I believe testing during treatment is due to the stage you are at and or if you have had a resection yet. I am guessing you will not have any. Unless they are watching an area or have some concerns.
  • dmdwins
    dmdwins Member Posts: 454 Member
    #5
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    dianetavegia said:

    Hi Lynne,
    Hi Lynne and welcome. I'm not much ahead of you but will tell you how my follow up is being done.

    First, I'm (was) also Stage III but my tumor was within the colon and did not involve other organs. 5 out of 17 lymph nodes had a 'few microscopic cancer cells'. I'll be 59 in late December. I was dx'd Jan. 2nd 2009.

    I did 12 tx's of Folfox and finished them on August 14th (disconnect day). I will see my Physician's Assistant four months after that last tx, so Dec. 15th and have blood tests done then. I will have a scan four months after that, so next April.

    From what I've read, the new standards call for yearly CT scans for Stage III unless the tumor was very aggressive.

    Hope this helps. Every doctor is different and mine is a young guy on top of every new thing that hits the news or rumor mill. :o)

    Depends
    Hi Lynne

    It usually depends on whether you have metastasis. I am Stage IV but was initially thought to have been totally resectable at surgery. I did not have a scan until after chemo was finished because there was not any disease (that was detectable)to monitor if the chemo was effective or not. However if you have metastatic disease present they often times will do a scan after 4 or so treatments to see if the chemo is working on the cancer that is present.Hope that helps explain the different approaches.

    Dawn
  • robinvan
    robinvan Member Posts: 1,012
    #6
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    Hi Lynne
    I can't remember off-hand. I don't tink I had a full CT scan until after 12. Then I had a PET scan as well. This was 5 years ago. I was stage 4. Others here will be more helpful.

    Welcome to the board!

    Rob; in Van
  • Muzzy
    Muzzy Member Posts: 175 Member
    #7
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    Welcome Lynne
    Welcome to our little family.
    I a stage 4, 12 treatments that finished in July.
    Shortly after i had a scan and blood work done.
    I beleive that is what they will do in your case.
    I hope this helps.
    Jeff
    Just happy to be here!!
  • maglets
    maglets Member Posts: 2,576 Member
    #8
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    Muzzy said:

    Welcome Lynne
    Welcome to our little family.
    I a stage 4, 12 treatments that finished in July.
    Shortly after i had a scan and blood work done.
    I beleive that is what they will do in your case.
    I hope this helps.
    Jeff
    Just happy to be here!!

    welcome Lynne
    another 4 here just finished xelox...one thing that happened to me was CEA numbers went up durung and right after chemo. this scared me but the onc said it was quite normal....sure enough a couple of months later they were down again so try not to worry if you have blood and those cea's bounce round a bit.

    mags
  • Buzzard
    Buzzard Member Posts: 3,043 Member
    #9
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    maglets said:

    welcome Lynne
    another 4 here just finished xelox...one thing that happened to me was CEA numbers went up durung and right after chemo. this scared me but the onc said it was quite normal....sure enough a couple of months later they were down again so try not to worry if you have blood and those cea's bounce round a bit.

    mags

    CEA......
    I am 6 months out of post op chemo and I go in the 29th for my blood draws...as far as I know there won't be any scans for me unless my CEA starts up or I insist on them. He seems to think that everything is fine and that the less scans he puts patients through the better off they will be in the long run, unless there is reasoning he finds no reason to scan. I may be wrong but unless my CEA goes batty or he finds something he doesn't like I won't have any scans...I had no node involvement and all margins clear but opted for the post op oxal/leuc/5fu for cleanup...
  • Sundanceh
    Sundanceh Member Posts: 4,392 Member
    #10
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    maglets said:

    welcome Lynne
    another 4 here just finished xelox...one thing that happened to me was CEA numbers went up durung and right after chemo. this scared me but the onc said it was quite normal....sure enough a couple of months later they were down again so try not to worry if you have blood and those cea's bounce round a bit.

    mags

    Mags - Just wanted to add.....
    Hi Mags

    CEA's that go up during chemo and even after for awhile, are an indication that the cancer cells are dying off and they emit more chemical that is detected in the CEA test.

    And you are right, after awhile they drop back down...I learned this from my onc and just thought I'd share this with you and everyone.

    -Craig
  • maglets
    maglets Member Posts: 2,576 Member
    #11
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    Sundanceh said:

    Mags - Just wanted to add.....
    Hi Mags

    CEA's that go up during chemo and even after for awhile, are an indication that the cancer cells are dying off and they emit more chemical that is detected in the CEA test.

    And you are right, after awhile they drop back down...I learned this from my onc and just thought I'd share this with you and everyone.

    -Craig

    thanks Craig
    Thanks Craig I did not know that. Yes there is a big question as to how many scans you should have. Because my fight has been 5 years they really feel i have taken lots of radiation. I think if you cea is a good indicator then you should go with that before scan. In 3 months I am going to do cea plus ct scan on just the liver....should be a much shorter burst of radiation. Apparently not all radiologists are in agreement with this.

    mags
  • Kathryn_in_MN
    Kathryn_in_MN Member Posts: 1,252 Member
    #12
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    I will have a PET scan done
    I will have a PET scan done after two months (4 rounds) of treatment, but this is only because we don't know if I am stage III or IV. When having a PET to check a spot seen on my liver in a CT before dx, two new concerns popped up. (The original concern was benign.) I have an active spot on my liver, and a few upper abdominal nodes. Both of these could be from surgery trauma (I had a biopsy done of the liver, and with the re-section they would have had to disconnect my bowel from the abdominal wall near those nodes that lit).

    If I didn't have these questionable things going on, I wouldn't have had a scan until after completing chemo.

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