CT Scan results

Hey Jojo,

That is such fantastic news, I am just so happy for you, have a great celebration:) 

I am a little concerned about the data of X-ray ratio to scans though.That would mean by the end of this year I will have had the equivalent of 2400 Xrays in the last 2 yrs, flipping heck! We won't be needing any Christmas lights this year then!!

Take care:)

Djinnie x

Djinnie said:

Such great news!!

Hey Jojo,

That is such fantastic news, I am just so happy for you, have a great celebration:) 

I am a little concerned about the data of X-ray ratio to scans though.That would mean by the end of this year I will have had the equivalent of 2400 Xrays in the last 2 yrs, flipping heck! We won't be needing any Christmas lights this year then!!

 

Take care:)

 

Djinnie x

Great to hear.  But better recieving such good news. Like DJ, I must have had the equivilent of about 8 thousand x-rays. And that is not in jest. Could that really be true? But I guess I can't complain. Because I am still alive. If that is true, how come I still have hair and teeth?

I'm authentically thrilled for you Jojo.

I can fell your excitement, congrats!   My doctor CT 's every 3 months at this point, I would like to know more on this.  Keep up the good work, your good news makes me feel good.

great news, Jo and after reading your post about radiation amount, I just emailed my husband's doctor asking if there might be alternatives to the frequent scans.

my guess is that a stage 4 patient will get the risk/benefit analysis but after reading about the risk of a second abdominal cancer on the Mayo site, I will demand more than this.

your news about the stable liver lesion without treatment is GREAT, and seems to bear out some studies that note the impact of removing tumor load on merastasi.

Sarah

JoanneNH said:

Have to admit that now I am

Have to admit that now I am curious.   I am seen twice a year by oncologists to follow up my RCC, once in Tampa, FL, and the other in New Hampshire.   My oncologist did a chest x-ray this year instead of a CT scan (for my 2nd checkup for the year).  When I asked why, he said to save me from a bit of radiation.   Found this chart, and apparently we get a lot of radiation from our CT scans of the abdomen and pelvis.

 

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/safety/?pg=sfty_xray

Joanne, thank you for that chart; do you know when it was put together. I have been researching all afternoon and JoJo's information is pretty accurate. 

i hope I don't get the docs upset but a high risk of abdominal cancer for my husband, even with a stage 4 renal cancer, is not acceptable.

Sarah

2014-10-23

Good news for you!! :-) Party time!!

Srashedb said:

Thank you

Joanne, thank you for that chart; do you know when it was put together. I have been researching all afternoon and JoJo's information is pretty accurate. 

i hope I don't get the docs upset but a high risk of abdominal cancer for my husband, even with a stage 4 renal cancer, is not acceptable.

Sarah

2014-10-23

I do not know when it was put together, but I found at the bottom of the page "This page was reviewed on August 10, 2014."

Jojo61 said:

My message might have been a

My message might have been a little misleading. Perhaps I didn't use the best wording. For that I apologize. The lesion on my liver was never identified as cancer. I am still stage 3. They were a bit concerned on the last scan.  I was scheduled to do an ultrasound this time around but because of that lesion they did another CT scan. Since there was no change in the lesion, they determined it to be a hemagioma .  So the uro-oncologist said from now on we will do ultrasound. I then asked if that would identify any cancer, and he said no but it would be informative in other ways and then mentioned the high radiation. He agreed to a scan once a year. I have mixed feelings about it, but in the Canadian health system, I don't have much say in the matter. I just wanted everyone to be aware of the radiation factor. I read somewhere that someone got a CT scan for broken ribs - futile to do since the treatment for that would have been the same regardless. Why expose yourself unnecessarily - in that kind of case. For monitoring of cancer, CT scans, of course, are necessary.

 

 

 

It's great to hear positive news.  I've gotten soooooo tired of medical appointments this past year.

Most all oncologists are aware of the extra readiation a patient is exposed to with a chest/abd./pelvic CT, as opposed to a chest x-ray combined with an abdominal and pelvic ultra sound.  There is a risk either way.

Having a determination of an hemangioma should relieve your mind a bit.  For the first 3 years, the CT's kept coming back with a large "cyst" in what was remaining of my liver. Finally, during an ultrasound, they were able to catch it in various stages of filling with blood and it's circulation.  It's just a large, vascular "strawberry birthmark" in the liver.  Not a tumor!!!

I'm finally at 1 scan per year, but it's taken a while.

Good Luck JoJo.

Donna

NanoSecond said:

Clarifications

Thanks for the clarifications, JoJo.  Let me just explain where I am coming from. In July 2012 a routine scan showed that I had developed bone mets in three locations.  Prior to that I had been "NED" for over 2 years after my left nephrectomy.  I had been stage III - now I had graduated to stage IV.  I was put on Sutent plus Xgeva and this combo worked quite well for the next 14 months. There was no progression and no new mets.  However, in December 2013, another routine CT-scan now revealed the presence of lesions on my liver.  [I should explain that several prior CT-scans had shown one very small hypodense area in my liver but it had not grown and so it had not been considered a met.]  What we all did not understand at that time was these new liver mets were extremely aggressive - unlike my bone mets.

I was switched to Inlyta (Axitinib) in early January. But by early March it was clear that it had done nothing to control my mets at all. I then joined a clinical trial of an anti-PDL1 drug made by EMD Serono.  By the end of May it was alarmingly clear that it too had failed.  My liver mets were now massive and too numerous to even count. After leaving that trial I started on Carbozantinib (Cometriq) but within weeks it became clear that it too had failed.

At this point in time (last June) I had one last FDA approved drug in my "arsenal" - Afinitor (Everolimus).  Nobody thought it would work for me. What I found out (only later) was that had this drug not worked I was just weeks away from liver failure and certain death. However, it did work and it is still working.  My last CT-scan showed shrinkage of all of those aggressive tumors - some by as much as 50%.  I am extremely lucky as that kind of response to this drug is only seen in about 3% of the population.

My next CT-scan will be next week.  At this point I feel great. I continue to be totally pain-free and pain-medication free. I am back to my "normal" self (whatever that means) and thankful for every single breath.  I also don't give a hoot about how much radiation I have been exposed to - as it has certainly saved my life.

So it is for this reason (bitter lesson?) that I feel that any "weirdness" in the liver needs to be monitored very carefully and should require scans at least once every 3 or 4 months.  Scans that can reveal mets and that means something far more effective than ultrasounds.

WOW, Nano, glad you are pain free and tumors are shrinking!!

I was concerned for you as last I remember you were in such pain and not yourself.

You are a great asset to us!!

Warmly, Jan