Megace as only treatment

snbdye2000
snbdye2000 Member Posts: 6
in Uterine/Endometrial Cancer #1
Hi everyone,
I was wondering if any of you were treated with Megace as your only treatment for uterine cancer and if so how well it worked and for how long. I was diagnosed with 1b2 last november and had robotic hysterectomy with no further treatment. (due to negative nodes and negative pelvic wash). In august a ct scan showed three tumors in my pelvis. PET scan showed it had not travelled outside the pelvis. My case has been put up in front of three tumor boards. First said straight to chemo and then internal radiation. Second said take megace for 6 more weeks (I've been on it for 6 weeks) and if no improvement of tumors than external radiation. Third board says megace and if no impovement chemo and external radiation. So we went with the majority and the plan is to take megace for 6 more weeks and then have a ct scan to see if there is any improvement. The theory is that my tumors are sensitive to progesterone and the megace will kill off the cells and shrink the tumors. I am very nervous about relying on a hormone pill to treat my cancer since I've never known anyone that did this. Wondering if any of you have gone this route and how it worked for you. Thanks for any info you can give me. Brenda

Comments

  • soromer
    soromer Member Posts: 130
    #2
    short answer here
    Dear Brenda,

    I replied to your question in somewhat more detail on the other discussion board. You'll see that a number of women do post on both boards (and, helpfully, use their same names, as you and I do).

    What I like about this board is the expansive discussion of complementary therapies, including information about diet and supplements. I've learned a lot.

    Good luck to you with your Megace. It's too soon for me to know whether it's working for me--but I'm also not waiting to see how it turns out before I take other steps, too.
  • HellieC
    HellieC Member Posts: 524 Member
    #3
    My experience of pelvic recurrence
    I live in the UK and my first pelvic recurrence was treated with external radiotherapy (45Gy to the pelvis with a 14.4Gy "boost" to the tumour). I was NED for 2.5 years before a second recurrence was detected, also in the pelvis. I had surgery followed by chemo for this one. I had no spread to lymph nodes or distant sites/organs either time.
    The treatment protocol for isolated pelvic recurrences in the UK seems to be radiation first, if you are healthy enough to take it, as this can be curative in up to 50% of cases. There are quite a lot of papers to support this as the "first line" for first recurrences and so I felt happy that I was receiving the most appropriate treatment for me.
    I did ask about "shrinking" the tumour first, using either chemo or hormone therapy but was told that given the size of the tumour (it was one nodule approx. 3 cms at vaginal vault), it was better to go straight to the radiotherapy and keep the chemo and hormones in the armoury. However, as you have more than one tumour, perhaps "hitting" it first with hormones is a wise strategy.
    wWshing you well
    Helen

Discussion Boards