Stomach Cancer - Thoughts / Doctors / Etc

ad71747174

Hello, my mom was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer (adenocarcinoma) locally advanced. She just started FLOT and the plan is to do 4 treatments, surgery, and then do another 4 treatments. Starting to learn a bit more (HER2negative / MMR loss on MLH1 / PMS2 (testing for Lynch syndrome now which could change some things on the treatment)). We are in Michigan and have seen a couple doctors here and a surgeon, who have been so helpful, but just wondering if anyone has had similar cases here and what doctors / institutions may have been the most helpful. Trying to find a path to using immunotherapy… any information would be great.

hope2024_

hi ad71747174. I hope you have some more information now especially the lynch syndrome testing. My mother was also diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer in November and it has been the most difficult time. Is your mom getting treatment at an NCI cancer center? Stomach cancer is rare and it’s important that she get care from an experienced team.

I believe the top programs are MD Anderson, Mayo and City of Hope in LA, as well as many others but those three were frequently mentioned in my research and other forums.

my mother was also recommended the 4 chemo treatments, surgery, 4 more chemo. However her oncologist recently recommended doing 6, surgery then 2, due to the nature of the surgery and the tough recovery. We’re hoping the cancer is responding to her chemo regimen and that she will be having the CRC + HIPEC this spring.

I hope your mom is doing as well as she can and that the side effects of the intense chemo are minimal.

Sending you best wishes,

Jessica

Craig48

You can read my story elsewhere but unless your medical team recommends alternative treatment i would avoid such as they can have unplanned results.

CZL

hi I have recently diagnosed the same cancer with initial staging iii but during FLOT treatment, after 4 times, now I have possible metastasis to bone. I recently have changed to city of hope. Due to my condition which I have developed obstruction in stomach totally blocked and dilenduct , frequent vomiting sometimes with blood , I haven’t resumed my chemo at city of hope. My oncologist there wanted me to do 5th FLOT chemo and radiation just to control locally. I have no idea now.

TMD25

This is a copied post as it applied to another person I replied to earlier: I'm sorry to hear of what you're going though. My mom had stage 4 stomach cancer, went into it at the age of 81, and she had a tube, too. Couldn't eat, etc. Had a port put in of course. Anyway, she did the chemo and it worked really well and she was able to eat whatever she wanted for a few months, the tube was gone, it was really a miracle. The main hurdles were scheduling, knowing which phone number to call, etc. We had to be proactive for her, keep notes, etc. The more organized the better! Anyway, push for the appointments and call backs, don't wait for them, especially if you're going into a holiday weekend or actual holidays. My mom went in initially just before Christmas and ended up in the hospital about 10 days before much was done since so many doctors were off. God Bless and be strong! Also, we were at the Cleveland Clinic, great hospital and the oncologist was awesome, but I wasn't impressed with the radiologists and their readings of scans, could have been more thorough.

ad71747174

Hi All - thank you for the responses here. And sorry for delay in my response! After all the testing, the plan was for my mom to do FLOT and also was approved for immunotherapy (Keytruda). The plan was to do 4 chemo treatments, keytruda (immunotherapy) every 3 weeks, then do a surgery, and then 4 more FLOT. After her 4th round of FLOT the tumor decreased in size and she was able to do her surgery / did not need additional chemo. The surgery ended up being successful and currently no signs of cancer / she had good margins. She continues to do immunotherapy treatments now. But the doctors said the combination of FLOT and the immunotherapy was very successful. If this is an option for anyone , I would ask.

ad71747174

Praying for everyone here!! If the testing lines up, I would ask your doctor about thoughts on immunotherapy. I know not everything works in every scenario, but worth the ask. It was for us.

Again, praying for everyone here God bless you all. Let me know if you might have any questions or thoughts on how i can be helpful.