Anyone had surgery after treatment for Squamous Cell?

Heeran
Heeran Member Posts: 171
I spoke with Chuck, Dr. Luketich's PA the other day and I was trying to catch everything he was say but was a bit confused. He made it sound like surgery for squamous cell is difficult because the tumor is inthe middle of the esophagous. Has anyone here had surgery with squamous cell? Did it go well? Were lymph nodes removed? Next week is her last week and then we wait 4 weeks then do the pet scan. I'm so scared.

Comments

  • oriontj
    oriontj Member Posts: 375
    No
    My husband has squamous stage 3, our onc changed the staging awhile back. Diagnosed July 2009. He's at the U. of Chicago and the surgeon there nixed surgery. He's happy since he didn't want it at all. His first round was erbitux, cisplatin and taxol. For a year he was clear...then last Dec a small recurrence in the same spot. On chemo again and it's stable.

    So he's plugging along. We went to Alaska in 2010 and off to Vegas a number of times. Just enjoying each day.
  • Donna70
    Donna70 Member Posts: 852 Member
    oriontj said:

    No
    My husband has squamous stage 3, our onc changed the staging awhile back. Diagnosed July 2009. He's at the U. of Chicago and the surgeon there nixed surgery. He's happy since he didn't want it at all. His first round was erbitux, cisplatin and taxol. For a year he was clear...then last Dec a small recurrence in the same spot. On chemo again and it's stable.

    So he's plugging along. We went to Alaska in 2010 and off to Vegas a number of times. Just enjoying each day.

    Stage III squamous cell in remission almost 2 yrs
    Hi,
    I was dx'd in 7/09 with T3N1M0 with squamous cell EC and it was in the middle of my chest. I had cisplatin, 5FU and radiation treatment and then had the full esophagectomy with 3 suture sites. I had one positive node out of 19 and so my dr had me do 3 cycles of Taxotere. It was rough but it was so worth it. I am happy that I got the surgery and also the post op chemo. Even though I have had some complications to a lung, I think in my opinion that surgery if offered is always a good option. But as stated above, it is different for every person and every outcome is different. There are a lot of stage III EC people out there who had the surgery but not too many squamous cell people seem to be around. I would go for another opinion and do some research on this. I had my surgery at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Baltimore MD by Dr. Krasna and there was never a question that I would not get surgery. good luck. take care,
    Donna70