Observation or Interferon for nodular melanoma stage 3

ngxfer001
ngxfer001 Member Posts: 3
edited March 2014 in Skin Cancer #1
Dear All,

My girl friend is only 29 years old and one months ago she diagnoised with nodular melanoma stage 3.

She did what she have to, she had the mole on her chest since she was young, she went to doctor to remove the mole last year March because it change color, and the lab report said is normal, and this year when it regrow again in May, she remove again, and the result still normal. The mole come back slightly in end of August, she removed it and one week later, there is lump under the area where the mole located. >.< She did what she have to to prevent but still the melanoma still penetrate through.

She didn't expose to sun too much and the area she has the mole is rare to sun expose.

PET CT shows clear else where the tumor is and slight reaction in the left axillary. She just had her operation 3 weeks ago to remove the tumor and 2 set of lymph nodes (18). They found one of the node has trace of melanoma. She is recovering.

The private hospital oncology doctor said she is young, there is no clinical trial in Hong Kong since it is a rare desease in HK too. He suggest using interferon alpha 2b.

The government hospital oncology doctor said the NCI guildline suggest observation rather than interferon and he didn't see much benefit with interferon since all these melanoma cases are from older age people which can tolerate the pain during treatment. She is the first one who is young.

She seems lose hope in western medicine since she did what the doctor told her to do and still end up like this.

Now I am confused with if she need to take interferon or just doing normal observation?

I am really lost

Comments

  • HarleyTink
    HarleyTink Member Posts: 3
    #2
    You guys should look up the
    You guys should look up the effects of interferon because the symptoms seem pretty horrible.My doctor is going to start treatment on me and I am really nervous.I am pretty skinny as is (107 lbs. 5'2") So its scary. If She feels like doing normal observation she should.I am nineteen years old so she is NOT the only one tell her that.! I don't know what a nodular melanoma is but I had a mole removed from my scalp.I've had two surgeries.What my doctors are saying is they want to tackle this thing pretty aggressively since Melanoma is not curable.But I have been watching shows and they also have alternative medicine.Eating organic,for example helps decrease the cancer from being active or "still" in some cases.Vegetables and Fruits have oxygen in them which increase immune system and decrease cancer cells.Or so my theory is.Please let me know what you guys decide.I go on Interferon in a few days so I will be able to share my experience with you.keep in touch.

    -A young girl from a small town,Idaho.
  • ngxfer001
    ngxfer001 Member Posts: 3
    #3
    HarleyTink said:

    You guys should look up the
    You guys should look up the effects of interferon because the symptoms seem pretty horrible.My doctor is going to start treatment on me and I am really nervous.I am pretty skinny as is (107 lbs. 5'2") So its scary. If She feels like doing normal observation she should.I am nineteen years old so she is NOT the only one tell her that.! I don't know what a nodular melanoma is but I had a mole removed from my scalp.I've had two surgeries.What my doctors are saying is they want to tackle this thing pretty aggressively since Melanoma is not curable.But I have been watching shows and they also have alternative medicine.Eating organic,for example helps decrease the cancer from being active or "still" in some cases.Vegetables and Fruits have oxygen in them which increase immune system and decrease cancer cells.Or so my theory is.Please let me know what you guys decide.I go on Interferon in a few days so I will be able to share my experience with you.keep in touch.

    -A young girl from a small town,Idaho.

    Thank you for your post.
    She
    Thank you for your post.

    She is too weak and skinny as you, only 98 pounds now with 168cm tall. She is taking chinese herbal treatment at the moment and vegeterian and only eat alkaline food (e.g. wakame).

    Since she still have wounds on her, we still decide if she is going to take the interferon since the doctor doesn't seems to have experience in event injecting the interferon and cannot provide us the detail of side effect. Even observation, he just said normal clinical one, not event PET CT, he said just by him examining the nearby lypmh node is enough. Doesn't seem professional to me.


    Keep in touch and I believe we will fight this and win this war together

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