Cancer Treatment Centers of America

lexern

Do any of you use Cancer Treatment Centers of America, their advertisement speaks of compasionate care and I've noticed that they have all the latest technologies. My Onc speaks to frankly with me about pallitive care since I'm stage IV and the timeline of my survival. I have 3 distant lymphnode mets and my primary tumor, never had mets to lungs or liver. I'm looking for someone who will put stats aside and show me a little hope.

herdizziness

Stats
Tell your onc, to take his stats and shove em up his almighty arse!!! Yep, you read that right, then go find immediately another onc.
How dare he, how dare he give you a lack of hope!!! I have mets to many places including liver, and my onc is talking NOW about a 5 year survival rate.
So go find the onc, that shoves stats aside and gives hope, he's out there.
This is the best advice I can give you.
Winter Marie

herdizziness

Dang it
I meant to also say from what I've heard, you kind of need to steer away from the Cancer treatment centers, their about money, not you, well, not unless you have great insurance.

geotina

CTCA
There have been several threads in the past that you can search. It is my understanding that their care is excellent, but, they only work with their own doctors and facilities so unless they are very close, a lot of travel is involved. As an example you can't have a scan close to home and sent to them, you have to go their facility for the scan so if they are a 4 hour drive, that is 8 hours of driving for a scan that you may be able to get within a few miles of home, same with chemo treatments, etc. There is a member here, Scouty, while she doesn't post much did have high praises for them. Perhaps you send her a pm she will respond to you.

As far as your doc giving you stats, our doc has never done that and my hubby is Stage IV with lots of mets to the liver and lungs at diagnosis. I should also add that we never asked that question, we knew what we were up against. When first seeing him his attitude was lets get to work on this and if all goes according to plan, I should have George around for a long time to come. Well, his plan did work and here we are 18 months later George is doing very well. In fact we are leaving on Saturday for a vacation 2000 miles from home. If your doctor is a downer at every visit then perhaps a talk with him will do the trick or pehaps if you two are not on the same page, a change in docs, someone with a more positive attitude is in order.

Best of luck to you - Tina

Lovekitties

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I agree with the other posts, FIND ANOTHER DOCTOR.

You have to be comfortable with any doc or facility which you choose. You have to be on the same page as far as what you are wanting to do and how far you are willing to go to get it. Sounds to me like your current doc has run the limit of his expertise, so time to move on.

The thing about CTCs of Am is that they do not treat every type of cancer at every location (from what I understand) so even if there is one close to you, it may be that you have to go to another for treatment.

If you post your general geographical location, I am sure there are folks on here who can give you good references about super docs who are out front in trying to keep us all alive.

Good luck in your search,

Marie who loves kitties

kristasplace

herdizziness said:

Stats
Tell your onc, to take his stats and shove em up his almighty arse!!! Yep, you read that right, then go find immediately another onc.
How dare he, how dare he give you a lack of hope!!! I have mets to many places including liver, and my onc is talking NOW about a 5 year survival rate.
So go find the onc, that shoves stats aside and gives hope, he's out there.
This is the best advice I can give you.
Winter Marie

AMEN!!
Amen, girl! Nothing irritates me more than an arrogant, presumptuous doctor who thinks his medical license automatically gives him soothsayer abilities.

The only thing i know about those centers is from one person who went, and didn't come out of it alive. i agree that you should get yourself a new oncologist, and look into alternative treatments, possibly combined with conventional treatments.

Much luck!
Krista

kristasplace

herdizziness said:

Stats
Tell your onc, to take his stats and shove em up his almighty arse!!! Yep, you read that right, then go find immediately another onc.
How dare he, how dare he give you a lack of hope!!! I have mets to many places including liver, and my onc is talking NOW about a 5 year survival rate.
So go find the onc, that shoves stats aside and gives hope, he's out there.
This is the best advice I can give you.
Winter Marie

AMEN!!
Amen, girl! Nothing irritates me more than an arrogant, presumptuous doctor who thinks his medical license automatically gives him soothsayer abilities.

The only thing i know about those centers is from one person who went, and didn't come out of it alive. i agree that you should get yourself a new oncologist, and look into alternative treatments, possibly combined with conventional ones. People are surviving this. You just need to find what works for you. That seems to be the hardest thing, but a good onc could help you. Do some research both on this board, and through other websites to find out what people are doing. This place is a great source of information.

Much luck!
Krista