Adjuvant chemotherapy vs. waiting for recurrence?

It is hard to say what is the right answer.  After my surgery I was offered the option of chemo or no chemo....the thinking was that they gobe everything in surgery.   Iopened for the chemo... 12 treatments of Folfox.  I am not sure if it did any good... I didn't want to take a chance with a wait and see approach.  I did okay on the Folfox... I do have neuropathy but all other side effects are manageable.  Right now I am going to have to have a MRI for lesions they found on my liver.

Alex

What are we mopping up?

Once cancer metastasizes, its akin to leaving the barn door open and having the livestock bolt for the prairie.

The human body is a circulatory system...cancer is a systemic disease...for every 1cm of tumor, that equates to a BILLION cancer cells. 

It's like trying to put out a fire with a garden hose.  Cancer is a moving target and therefore we spend a great deal of time chasing. 

There is no guarantee either way of which approach is beneficial...and that's why your doctor straddles both sides of the fence...because, they really don't know with any accuracy. 

Wait and watch is not a bad approach....actually, it can be a good one.   It leaves the chemos on the table and effective at the time you might need to do one of them.  Prolonged use of any chemo can (over a time TBD) can desensitize the body to the chemo's effectiveness...and then the treatment can become less effective...or stop working altogether.

On the other hand, if you're new to the fight and you're early in the game...there's the thought of thowing everything you can add it right now....in the early stages.

And it's here, that none of us can ever really answer the question...just like the docs...because we all respond differently...and none of us really know...for ourselves...and especially for others. 

I'm wondering why they only had you doing 5fu...instead of one of the front line players - Oxaliplatin & Irinotecan? 

And normally, they would piggyback the 5fu with either of those chemos to strengthen the cocktail.

5fu is the type of chemo that can hold the line or prevent tumors from growing so fast....but its intent is not to cure.   The real truth is that chemo (in and of itself) does not cure cancer...it usually takes a multi-faced adjuvant approach........Surgery / Radiation / Chemo

And no guarantees that even doing those will result in long term remission...though one does expect response and additional longevity from doing them. 

You've got a clear scan....a CEA of .8.....and no visible tumor.

Will recurrence find you? 

Only Time will answer that one...for you...for all of us. 

I've had cancer 3x in 8.7 years.....did the surgeries, the radiation, and the chemos....and still recurred. 

My last fight has put me back in a remissive state....currently the longest clear streak I've ever experienced....in the latter stages of what has been a long fight.

I suspect cancer will find me for #4 at some point...but I don't know....we're watching and waiting. 

Unfortunately, recurrence is prevalent with our disease...and as such, it's often where the real battle of cancer is fought.  Most of our battles are seldom won with the first salvo fired.

Wish we could give everyone (including ourselves) the definitive answer...recurrence is what makes cancer so tough. 

Whatever decision you make will be the right one for you.  Best of luck!

-Craig

annalexandria said:

This is just me...

but I would probably go with my doctor's advice, so long as I had a decent relationship with him/her and felt that there was a reasonable level of trust in the relationship.  Of course, just to play devil's advocate with myself, I did follow my doc's advice at the time (to do mop up chemo after surgery with no visible tumor) and now wish that I hadn't done so, so what do I know?  Sometimes it feels like the blind leading the blind.  I've heard it said that whatever choice you make, it needs to leave you with no regrets later...not in terms of outcomes, but rather in terms of what your feelings are about those outcomes, and the connection to the choices you make now.  Not sure if that's making any sense, so i'll stop now.  AA

Can't read this:(

Wanted to read what my favorite librarian had to say:)

hippiechicks said:

thank you John...I was going

thank you John...I was going to attempt the translation and I was kicked off the site for a bit...this site seems to act stange at times.

 

I'm pretty sure I wasn't on drugs when I made that post.  Or at least nothing stronger than usual.  I can see it just fine...so what wuz you all seein'?  AA

annalexandria said:

Seeing as how I speak only English...

that's kind of weird.  I know CSN can be glitchy at times, but changing our posts into foreign languages ia a bit much.

It looks like you got the "symbol" font, at least according to MS Word.

Had to copy to Word and request it to make as destination font in order to "translate".

Sure wish they would let us set a preferred font so we didn't have to set it each time...either that or set a perm font with a size which is compatible with older eyes or eyesight impacted by chemo.