Overall Survival Research

LizGrrr said:

Canadian study
http://www.isrn.com/journals/obgyn/2011/146264/

Here's a recent study from Canada. Sample sizes are small, but it seems to indicate that Stage IA recurrence with observation is 12.5%, and 0-7% with chemo or chemo/radiation

Liz in Dallas

fanniemay said:

The first thing I asked my oncologist/surgeon who is one of the best in Wisconsin. He is a researcher and educator doing both laproscopic and robotic surgery. I asked him if there is research or evidence to support doing chemo/radiation for 1A papillary serous and he said "definitely" so I am taking his advice and doing 4 chemos followed by 3 internal radiations. From the few studies I have seen(including the one Liz posted)there is about a 10 to 20% better rate of survival for those who have the chemo/radiation treatments than those that don't do anything(just have the surgery) Tomorrow I go for my 2nd chemo. It is not an easy thing to go through, but worth it for me. I had bad bowel issues following chemo, along with muscle and bone weakness but that all went away about 2 weeks after.

LizGrrr said:

Chemo aftereffects, etc
One thing I've learned from these boards is that there is no 'set' treatment for UPSC Stage IA - many seem to be getting 6 chemos with sandwich radiation but my onc recommended just 3 chemos and I'll learn more about radiation recos in a couple of weeks.

Hooray - yesterday I finished my 3rd and final chemo! I do get constipated so I'm religious about drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day and taking stool softeners morning and night, as well as eating a lot of protein and fiber. I also get horrid bone pain that lasts 7-10 days and alas the onc won't prescribe anything stronger than hydrocodone which doesn't really work and gives me insomnia.

So for this last go-'round we're trying skipping the Neulasta shot and doing some extra bloodwork to monitor my WBC. So far I feel super!

Liz in Dallas

imackie48 said:

New
Liz, did you have any side effects from Neulasta, since I was taking Leukine, with so many side effects, it did bring my white count up .
Irene

fanniemay said:

The first thing I asked my oncologist/surgeon who is one of the best in Wisconsin. He is a researcher and educator doing both laproscopic and robotic surgery. I asked him if there is research or evidence to support doing chemo/radiation for 1A papillary serous and he said "definitely" so I am taking his advice and doing 4 chemos followed by 3 internal radiations. From the few studies I have seen(including the one Liz posted)there is about a 10 to 20% better rate of survival for those who have the chemo/radiation treatments than those that don't do anything(just have the surgery) Tomorrow I go for my 2nd chemo. It is not an easy thing to go through, but worth it for me. I had bad bowel issues following chemo, along with muscle and bone weakness but that all went away about 2 weeks after.

imackie48 said:

New
Liz, did you have any side effects from Neulasta, since I was taking Leukine, with so many side effects, it did bring my white count up .
Irene

LizGrrr said:

UPSC sightings
When I received my diagnosis from my gyno in October 2011, she said this is only the 2nd UPSC case she's seen in 20 years of interning and practicing.

I'm so special

Liz in Dallas

Gloria C said:

"special"
Yes, I am "special" as well.....only I am Stage 4A....and its in the lymphnodes (I was 48 when diagnosed and am now 52). Chemo left me with severe bone pain and neuropathy....I decided AGAINST full body radiation which was the recommended protocal. Well, here I am....still alive over 2 yrs later.....figured I would take my chances with the cancer killing me rather than the radiation. For me, it's paid off. But, since I have NO markers, who knows about the gamble. However, I do know the radiation would have killed off my organs and ,so far, all organs are functioning properly. Chemo and its after effects are he##, but still better than pushing daisies. Who knows what our 'new normal' will be. My oncologists are amazed that Im still alive and offer no hope. Proved them wrong so far (they gave me 3 mos).

RoseyR said:

Not conspiracy, but myopia

To suggest that chemo and radiation are limited ways to address cancer isn't to suggest a "conspiracy" between doctors and Big Pharma; I myself opted for chemo and radiation.

It is merely to suggest the stranglehold that tradition can impose upon any profession.
By its very nature medicine is a necessarily conservative discipline, resistant to change. In some ways that protects us from spurious treatments, untested prescriptions--although researchers such as Ralph Moss claim that many chemotherapeutic agents such as Avastin were never adequately tested before being sanctioned, just as hormone therapy was never adequately tested before being presribed for menopausal complaints.

It is moreoever to suggest what should be obvious: that traditional disciplines governed by political structures such as the AMA tend to keep promulgating the same therapies, the same orthodoxies, decade after decade, so that even new med students at the "best" U.S. schools rarely, if ever, receive training in additioal ways to enhance treatment, mitigate side effects of chemo, or bolster the immune system, helping us to withstand the effects of traditional treatment.

So to question American oncologists' resistance to change, their insistence on hundreds of randomized studies to prove the benefit of a supplement but more casual standards for testing new pharmaceuticals, and, most indictingly, their shocking lack of knowledge about basic nutrition, is not to claim a conspiracy; it is merely to show the limitations of medical orthodoxy.

The bottom line: When a prominent oncologist has never heard that low levels of Vitamin B-12 before one starts chemo predisposes one to suffer worse neuropathy ("I don't remember hearing that in med school," one of my oncs sighed), he or she betrays, at best, a lack of intellectual curiosity, refusal to think outside the box, and a degree of laziness that would be indicted in any other profession.

How many of our oncologists HAD our Vitamin B-12 levels checked before we started chemo?

How many of your oncologists tested our ferritin levels AFTER treatment to be sure our iron levels weren't too high? How many of us who had transfusions were warned beforehand that more than one might cause a high ferritin level that can pose a threat to cancer patients?

How many, in short, have shown even the most primitive knowledge of how our prior vitamin
and mineral status could affect our treatment?

And how many hospitals where we had our hysterectomies CONTINUE to serve canned soup, jello, custard, and other sugar-laden "foods" as we recuperate from surgery and stock their snack areas with canned soda? All of them.

A conspiracy with Pepsi? No. But a lazy tradition that typifies not merely the trays of alleged food we find on their plates, but a limited approach to many facets of our treatment.