differences in post treatment follow ups

sephie
sephie Member Posts: 650 Member
in Anal Cancer #1
i try to trust the docs at MD Anderson (have hard time with that due to failure by proctologist in my home town to dx me correctly for 10 months) ----BUT , I had Procto. and Dre's at the 2 year mark after tx , then, I was told that the only doc at MD Anderson to perform from now on a DRE is radiation oncologist every 6 months with no anoscope.. i had to request that my colorectal surgeon do a proctoscope ( or anoscope ) on my 3 year anniversary because he was only going to do one IF the radiation team saw a reason. he is one on the docs who developed the protocol. sooooo this seems too far apart to me. I was stage 2 no lymph nodes. i still have swelling and pain on left side with a bump coming up. hard to walk or sit for long time. oh well. any thoughts??? sephie

Comments

  • mxperry220
    mxperry220 Member Posts: 496 Member
    #2
    My Doctors
    My primary care physician advised me to see my chemo and colon rectal surgeon going forward rather than my radiation oncologist. I had been seeing my radiation oncologist post treatment rather than my chemo doctor. This was back in the summer. I am 3 years post treatment as of January 2012. My primary care physician said these doctors should be the ones to examine me going forward as they would be the ones treating me if there was a recurrence. He said I had all the radiation I could have in my anal area so the radiation doctor would have a minimal role should thee be a recurrence.
  • mp327
    mp327 Member Posts: 4,440 Member
    #3
    Follow-ups
    I urge you to take a look at the guidelines for follow-up of anal cancer post-treatment on the website for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. It clearly states that DRE and anoscope be done every 3-6 months for 5 years, along with inguinal node palpation. If you are not registered on that website, please do so and view this protocol. I would recommend printing this information out and taking it to your colorectal doc. If it were me, I would be insisting on follow-up exams of DRE and anoscope every 3 months. I'm past the 3 year mark and am still getting these exams every 3 months, although my colorectal doc said every 6 months would be okay. I need the peace of mind that these exams give me.
  • sephie
    sephie Member Posts: 650 Member
    #4
    mp327 said:

    Follow-ups
    I urge you to take a look at the guidelines for follow-up of anal cancer post-treatment on the website for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. It clearly states that DRE and anoscope be done every 3-6 months for 5 years, along with inguinal node palpation. If you are not registered on that website, please do so and view this protocol. I would recommend printing this information out and taking it to your colorectal doc. If it were me, I would be insisting on follow-up exams of DRE and anoscope every 3 months. I'm past the 3 year mark and am still getting these exams every 3 months, although my colorectal doc said every 6 months would be okay. I need the peace of mind that these exams give me.

    thx
    thx--- i thought that 3-6 months was the protocol. so i will work on this., sephie
  • sephie
    sephie Member Posts: 650 Member
    #5
    mxperry220 said:

    My Doctors
    My primary care physician advised me to see my chemo and colon rectal surgeon going forward rather than my radiation oncologist. I had been seeing my radiation oncologist post treatment rather than my chemo doctor. This was back in the summer. I am 3 years post treatment as of January 2012. My primary care physician said these doctors should be the ones to examine me going forward as they would be the ones treating me if there was a recurrence. He said I had all the radiation I could have in my anal area so the radiation doctor would have a minimal role should thee be a recurrence.

    i agree
    thx. so much sephie
  • AZANNIE
    AZANNIE Member Posts: 445 Member
    #6
    Sephie
    I`m 6 months post tx. I see my colorectal dr in 3 months and oncologist in 6 months. Will also have lab work and scan before seeing oncologist. I asked him if I still need to see rad onc and he said no. I can`t have anymore radiation anyway and would much rather see the other two drs.
  • lizdeli
    lizdeli Member Posts: 569 Member
    #7
    AZANNIE said:

    Sephie
    I`m 6 months post tx. I see my colorectal dr in 3 months and oncologist in 6 months. Will also have lab work and scan before seeing oncologist. I asked him if I still need to see rad onc and he said no. I can`t have anymore radiation anyway and would much rather see the other two drs.

    Follow ups
    Sephie
    I'm confused. I was treated at MDA, what do they mean by radiation oconologist? I have an oncologist, had a radiation doctor and also a surgeon. I never had surgery but the surgeon is the one who does my proctoscopy or whatever they are called...so many scopes of sorts over the years I get them confused. He also does DRE. Anyway I was getting them every 3 months for the first 2 years, then he changed it to every 6 months. I have CT scans every six months as well. I see my oncologist every 3 months though, for blood work and general check up including a DRE. I recently went for my blood work and general check up and asked if I was being moved to 6 months and if my scans would be moved to one year. She said not yet. So I'm still going every 3 months and 6 months for the scans. The reason is because I did have lymph node involvement and she wants to keep an eye on things. I go back in March for scans and May for scopes. I will reach my 3 years in Sept of this year (counting from last day of treatment).
  • sephie
    sephie Member Posts: 650 Member
    #8
    lizdeli said:

    Follow ups
    Sephie
    I'm confused. I was treated at MDA, what do they mean by radiation oconologist? I have an oncologist, had a radiation doctor and also a surgeon. I never had surgery but the surgeon is the one who does my proctoscopy or whatever they are called...so many scopes of sorts over the years I get them confused. He also does DRE. Anyway I was getting them every 3 months for the first 2 years, then he changed it to every 6 months. I have CT scans every six months as well. I see my oncologist every 3 months though, for blood work and general check up including a DRE. I recently went for my blood work and general check up and asked if I was being moved to 6 months and if my scans would be moved to one year. She said not yet. So I'm still going every 3 months and 6 months for the scans. The reason is because I did have lymph node involvement and she wants to keep an eye on things. I go back in March for scans and May for scopes. I will reach my 3 years in Sept of this year (counting from last day of treatment).

    makes me wonder
    i call my radiation guy (Dr.Delclos) a radiation oncologist. this could be wrong title. i did not have lymph node involvement so maybe that is why mine is different but I do think that they are skipping some important anoscopes .i will be 3 years post tx July 20 of this year so i am just before you. they only do CT on me one time per year now. next CT is March. I only see my oncolgist 1 time per year. I have Overman. i do have a colorectal surgeon in shreveport who diagnosed me correctly after mis diagnoses in Monroe for 10 months so i will schedule an anoscope with him soon. just to be safe. i have emailed MDA to see if i am being over looked. thanks sephie
  • duckyann
    duckyann Member Posts: 159
    #9
    sephie said:

    makes me wonder
    i call my radiation guy (Dr.Delclos) a radiation oncologist. this could be wrong title. i did not have lymph node involvement so maybe that is why mine is different but I do think that they are skipping some important anoscopes .i will be 3 years post tx July 20 of this year so i am just before you. they only do CT on me one time per year now. next CT is March. I only see my oncolgist 1 time per year. I have Overman. i do have a colorectal surgeon in shreveport who diagnosed me correctly after mis diagnoses in Monroe for 10 months so i will schedule an anoscope with him soon. just to be safe. i have emailed MDA to see if i am being over looked. thanks sephie

    Hi sephie,
    I will be 3 years
    Hi sephie,

    I will be 3 years out in June of this year and I had anoscopes every 6 weeks until the 6 month mark, then every 3 months til the 1 1/2 mark, then 6 months and my last one was in December and my colorectal doctor said he would see me in a year unless I needed him before. (which I hope to God I don't) My oncologist (chemo) sees me every 6 months and he also does a DRE. I have not seen my radiation oncologist since 6 weeks post treatment. I also was Stage 2 with no lymph node involvement. I have only gotten scans annually since the beginning. The first 2 were PET/CT and this last one was a CT.

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