I'm half way home

Randy33

I just got my CT scan results and I am still NED! I have gone 2 1/2 years now so I figure I am half way to being cured assuming that 5 years NED means you are cured. I don't know if its the program I am following or I am just lucky. I asked my Onc if he had any statistics on when recurance happens for stage 4 colon cancer. He did not. Does anyone know if those statistics exist? I have heard that if you can make past 3 years NED you got a pretty good chance of making it.

Nana b

There is a five year
There is a five year statistic, forgot what it was, but every year you make it is good. We all pray we don't relapse.

Happy for your NED! Stay positive and take care of the bod, be good to it!

tootsie1

Yay!
Don't worry about the numbers and enjoy your status. You're doing great!

*hugs*
Gail

taraHK

Two years
I've read that after 2 years the chances of a recurrence drop dramatically. So, congratulations!!! Wonderful news.

Tara

rogina2336

Congrats!!!
I love hearing all the good news!!!! Cheers to Good Health!! Kim

smokeyjoe

rogina2336 said:

Congrats!!!
I love hearing all the good news!!!! Cheers to Good Health!! Kim

Just curious, what program
Just curious, what program are you following??

Buckwirth

For Stage IV
The survival time frame is moved to 10 years (basically, it is the 10 year mark that the Oncologist is comfortable with very extended test intervals).

Colocan (Steve) posted a link to an article called Metastatic Colorectal Canncer: Management Challenges and Opportunities. It had some good statistical information on the five year rate.

For those uncomfortable with statistics, please stop reading now.

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Pertinent Paragraph:

Chemobiotherapy

There have been significant advances in the survival of patients with unresectable mCRC. Kopetz et al37 reviewed the survival of 2,470 patients with mCRC treated at the Mayo Clinic and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. They found that the median overall survival time of patients treated from 1990 to 1997 was 14.2 months, compared with a median overall survival time of 29.3 months for patients treated during 2004–2006, when hepatic resection was performed in 20% of the patients and new chemotherapy and biotherapy agents were available, such as oxaliplatin, bevacizumab, and cetuximab. The authors also found that the 5-year overall survival rate increased from 9.1% to 19.2% during the period 2001–2003.

Buckwirth

Buckwirth said:

For Stage IV
The survival time frame is moved to 10 years (basically, it is the 10 year mark that the Oncologist is comfortable with very extended test intervals).

Colocan (Steve) posted a link to an article called Metastatic Colorectal Canncer: Management Challenges and Opportunities. It had some good statistical information on the five year rate.

For those uncomfortable with statistics, please stop reading now.

**************************************************

Pertinent Paragraph:

Chemobiotherapy

There have been significant advances in the survival of patients with unresectable mCRC. Kopetz et al37 reviewed the survival of 2,470 patients with mCRC treated at the Mayo Clinic and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. They found that the median overall survival time of patients treated from 1990 to 1997 was 14.2 months, compared with a median overall survival time of 29.3 months for patients treated during 2004–2006, when hepatic resection was performed in 20% of the patients and new chemotherapy and biotherapy agents were available, such as oxaliplatin, bevacizumab, and cetuximab. The authors also found that the 5-year overall survival rate increased from 9.1% to 19.2% during the period 2001–2003.

One last comment
Stephen Jay Gould had this to say on being diagnosed with Mesothelioma:

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"... I immediately recognized that the distribution of variation about the eight-month median would almost surely be what statisticians call "right skewed." (In a symmetrical distribution, the profile of variation to the left of the central tendency is a mirror image of variation to the right. In skewed distributions, variation to one side of the central tendency is more stretched out - left skewed if extended to the left, right skewed if stretched out to the right.) The distribution of variation had to be right skewed, I reasoned. After all, the left of the distribution contains an irrevocable lower boundary of zero (since mesothelioma can only be identified at death or before). Thus, there isn't much room for the distribution's lower (or left) half - it must be scrunched up between zero and eight months. But the upper (or right) half can extend out for years and years, even if nobody ultimately survives. The distribution must be right skewed, and I needed to know how long the extended tail ran - for I had already concluded that my favorable profile made me a good candidate for that part of the curve.

The distribution was indeed, strongly right skewed, with a long tail (however small) that extended for several years above the eight month median. I saw no reason why I shouldn't be in that small tail, and I breathed a very long sigh of relief. My technical knowledge had helped. I had read the graph correctly. I had asked the right question and found the answers. I had obtained, in all probability, the most precious of all possible gifts in the circumstances - substantial time. I didn't have to stop and immediately follow Isaiah's injunction to Hezekiah - set thine house in order for thou shalt die, and not live. I would have time to think, to plan, and to fight."

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The stats for mCRC are similarly right skewed. The median age of diagnoses is 74. And while I would not encourage a 74 year old to give up hope, those of us who are well under that age can take quite a bit of hope, for we sit on the better end of a long tail.

Randy33

smokeyjoe said:

Just curious, what program
Just curious, what program are you following??

My program
I basically exercise, follow a Mediteranian diet and take supplements.
1. I exercise 3 hrs/day
2. I eat lots of fruit, vegtables,whole grains, green tea, tumeric, garlic,
and no red meat.
3. I take resviratrol, asprin, grape seed extract, fish oil, CoQ10,modified citrus
pectin, Vitamin D3, and a multi-vitamin.
Whenever i hear of anything new that seems resonable I add it to my program. I hope this helps. If anyone knows of something I should add let me know.

Vickilg

Yahoooo!
Congratulations! I am so very happy to read about you being NED! Ignore the stats. I have sat in the chemo room watching many elderly patients fighting the cancer and my heart breaks for them. It is hard at 44 to go through it but it is much, much harder for someone a lot older. You go in and they tell you that due to chemo this body part needs to be watched or that organ, etc. I often wonder about the stats. Compared to the average death age of a healthy person compared to someone surving cancer. How many of these elderly patients (the ones that make up the majority of stats) stop chemo or do not do chemo. I know if I was 80 something years old I would probably chose not to do it but right now I will fight it with everything I have.

Point is... ignore the stats. They are outdated and you are not a statistic. You are wonderful, cancer free you. Enjoy your life. You have worked hard to earn the right to be happy!