We think my mom has cancer again :-(

Mandih82

My mom was diagnosed in November 2011 with stage 2 esophageal cancer. She urwent 3 rounds of chemo, surgery, 5 weeks of radiationa and then 2 more rounds of chemo. She had clear margins after her surgery. She had clear PET/CT scans and endoscopies. She caught pnuemonia really bad last year and also got thrush and c-diff. She overcame all of that and was feeling great. 6 weeks ago she started feeling crappy again. Underwent another endoscopy and colonoscopy and everything looked great...no tumors or lesions. She had a PET/CT scan last week and we just found out today that there were spots...they weren't there 5 months ago. They think it's residual cancer. The spots were on her right lung, left side of rib cage and close to her colon. Dr said that if it is esopageal cancer again they might be able to treat it with an antibody, but she said it's not curable when it comes back a second time. My mom asked how long she had and they said 3-12 months. Has anyone had hot spots on a PET/CT scan, but it not be cancer??? We're holding on to hope that by some miracle this scan is wrong. Thoughts???

dfd24

find out results of Her2 testing

hello,

make sure they tested her for Her2 . if she is positive she will get Herceptin along with chemo. it is very important that she be tested.

also, they can't really predict how long a person will live with a recurrence and/or metastases. it depends on each individual. 

for example my husband had a recurrence march 2012 two years after diagnosis, they forgot to test him for her2, but when I asked about it in 2013 he turned out to be positive, he is still getting treatment  and he is stable and feeling good.

 

wishing you all the best,

danièle