Stage 4 diagnosis how you know chemo is working

De05m

Hello my mother has been diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer in June. She had difficulty in swallowing and it started in Jan she ignored and thought it's acidity she could eat sometimes and cudnt sometimes however we went to ent who misdiagnosed her n gave her allergy medicine , in Jan we had checked her blood n all tests were good in March also her blood check was relatively fine , finally we went to another doctor who safe side asked her to check all n her cea came 12 so he was alarmed he asked her to to CT scan n then finally endoscopy which revealed a 4cm tumor at lower esophagus, she has dialation too.

 

We did pet scan n immediately started chemo as she started eating semi solids and soups since march even swallowing fruits became a problem she had bad shoulder pain just a week before we started Chemo

We began weekly chemo exactly month back , with placitaxel & cisplatin, she had diarhea and weakness so we had to postpone the next week schedule by a week she had 3 chemo session so far which went fairly well she is now able to eat food easily which she has stopped weight is almost stable .. this week her WBC dropped to 3500 n so did nutrophils and lucocytes .. doctor said she is ok for the session but we refused since she felt little weakness ... She is her 2 negative ....i can see the difference within a month in positive way

I researched and found about cryo ablation which is beneficial to stage 4 patient's but in India hardly people know about it , we went for an opinion to a very experienced doctor who scared us saying that initially it will go well later she wud ne given stent whatever i have read it seems that if your swallowing gets better means chemo is working well and ur on right track.. 

 

She was feeling weakness n giddiness as her RDW has shot up because of iron deficiency... However she is able to eat good at a pace only problem is having plain water she is cautious about it... The oncologist who treats her seems positive as he says her general condition is very good but I don't understand how he thought he cud go ahead with chemo when WBC is low luckily we postponed it and she had diarhea delayed this time so we started the medicine ... Also after her first chemo (she started eating in 15days and her shoulder pain went away)

Deathorglory

Hello

Hello De05m,

I was initially a stage 3 esophageal cancer patient, but after sucessful initial treatment, I had a recurrence a couple of years later.  The recurrence was in a lung, so now I was stage 4.  I was given about 7-8 months life expectancy.  That was 2011.  I'm still here and testing clean for any cancer.  When I was getting chemo (folfox & herceptin) for the recurrence, I was getting beaten up pretty bad.  Everyone who knew me thought that I was going to die and soon.  The side effects of the chemo were timed just about perfectly with my 7-8 month prognosis.  We didn't know it at the time, but it was just the chemo doing its job and doing it well.  Once I completed the course of folfox, I started feeling better and looking better.  I still have some permanent side effects from the folfox, but I'm alive to complain about them, so who cares.  I still get the herceptin weekly.  I'm actually in the infusion center as I'm typing this.  I'm coming in on seven years of herceptin weekly.  You said your mother is her2 negative, so she won't have the same pathway as me, but hopefully something does become her path out from under this monster.  

You were wondering how to tell if the chemo is working.  My first time around (stage 3) I was receiving chemo alongside of radiation, in preparation for surgery.  The radiation basically fried my esophagus shut and I had to go through all sorts of things to be able to eat anything.  That stayed the same until I had the surgery.  The only way I knew if the chemo was working was by my tests.  I know this isn't exactly what you are looking for, but it's the best I can offer.

Best Wishes,

Ed

De05m

Deathorglory said:

Hello

Hello De05m,

I was initially a stage 3 esophageal cancer patient, but after sucessful initial treatment, I had a recurrence a couple of years later.  The recurrence was in a lung, so now I was stage 4.  I was given about 7-8 months life expectancy.  That was 2011.  I'm still here and testing clean for any cancer.  When I was getting chemo (folfox & herceptin) for the recurrence, I was getting beaten up pretty bad.  Everyone who knew me thought that I was going to die and soon.  The side effects of the chemo were timed just about perfectly with my 7-8 month prognosis.  We didn't know it at the time, but it was just the chemo doing its job and doing it well.  Once I completed the course of folfox, I started feeling better and looking better.  I still have some permanent side effects from the folfox, but I'm alive to complain about them, so who cares.  I still get the herceptin weekly.  I'm actually in the infusion center as I'm typing this.  I'm coming in on seven years of herceptin weekly.  You said your mother is her2 negative, so she won't have the same pathway as me, but hopefully something does become her path out from under this monster.  

You were wondering how to tell if the chemo is working.  My first time around (stage 3) I was receiving chemo alongside of radiation, in preparation for surgery.  The radiation basically fried my esophagus shut and I had to go through all sorts of things to be able to eat anything.  That stayed the same until I had the surgery.  The only way I knew if the chemo was working was by my tests.  I know this isn't exactly what you are looking for, but it's the best I can offer.

Best Wishes,

Ed

Hi thank you so much for

Hi thank you so much for replying  my mother is one of the strongest women I know with great will power and she is hopeful ...for weekly blood check we did CBC & Creatine for weekly tests but our doctor says they only c hemoglobin , platelet n wbc counts before they got ahead with chemo..

Moreever he said that if the symptoms r getting better means we are on right track.. hopeful for the best...

 

1979bmg

De05m said:

Hi thank you so much for

Hi thank you so much for replying  my mother is one of the strongest women I know with great will power and she is hopeful ...for weekly blood check we did CBC & Creatine for weekly tests but our doctor says they only c hemoglobin , platelet n wbc counts before they got ahead with chemo..

Moreever he said that if the symptoms r getting better means we are on right track.. hopeful for the best...

 

Possible improvement

The fact her eating and appetite have improved is usually a very good sign. Also that pain is becoming less, that is a good sign as well.

 

I was diagnosed stage IV a year ago, intense pain with the first few bites of food but I managed. Literally within 2 weeks I started to notice less pain and improvement with appetite.

 

I lost about 15 pounds of weight before diagnosis and maybe another 10 during treatment. Side effects can be rough but the only definite way to tell if she has improved will be by CT Scans, PET scans, biopsies, etc.

 

I have follow-up scans next week to see if I am still in remission.

 

I am praying for both of you as you fight this horrible disease.

De05m

Thank you so much for the

Thank you so much for the reply, her swallowing is much better she has nonpain but chemo sideeffect is there postponed session again as counts weren't badly low ...we want to do pet scan but unless doctor doesn't say we can't I hope he does it soon so that we get an idea about progress, he said that when there were no pet scan etc ppl used to understand seeing if symptoms get better and patient is feeling better and healthier