New Hope for Anal Cancer Patients

 I saw an earlier trial for ADXS for the initial radiation/chemo treatment, I guess it was the phase II trial.  Unfortunately, to get into that you couldn't have received any prior chemo treatment at all.  I'm assuming that its the same for the Phase III trial, which means that most of us would not be eligible.  However, Dr. Eng did promise to put me in a new trial that should be opening up soon, so maybe this phase will include metastatic patients.

Its good to see anal cancer getting more attention, the more people working on it the better.

nicotianna said:

New trial

Thanks for posting Martha!  My impression is the trial is for newly diagnosed AC pts.  Eng mentions IMRT radiation treatment.  AC patients who have received XRT usually receive the maximum dose so that would automatically disqualify him/her.  I think that the clinical trial info would be most valuable for oncologists to refer their newly diagnosed AC patients for evaluation.

Nic

One thing that surprised me in the video was when Dr Eng said that bulky tumors - those originally over 5cm - had a very high recurrence rate.  That got me looking through all my papers and I couldn't find anywhere how big mine was.  All they told me was "the size of a golf ball" - do you think that's more, or less than 5 cm?

mp327 said:

Cazz

A golf ball is 4.27 cm.  I'm very surprised that somewhere in your path report the size of the tumor is not given.  I thought it was standard practice to measure them and record that information.

Martha

The future randomised trial sounds interesting, and it's good to know that research is being done for this rare and stigmatised cancer. I still get very frustrated by the pink ribbons, but i doubt AC will ever be that accepted as a talking point or tug at people's purse strings to donate to research etc. Sad though, because only a tiny proportion of people start out in life without an anus

Thanks for sharing Martha

I am grateful for your ongoing information gathering 

Liz

Dr. Eng is my doctor. I am stage 4 and have been for two years.

Cazz said:

Video

One thing that surprised me in the video was when Dr Eng said that bulky tumors - those originally over 5cm - had a very high recurrence rate.  That got me looking through all my papers and I couldn't find anywhere how big mine was.  All they told me was "the size of a golf ball" - do you think that's more, or less than 5 cm?

The estimated size of my tumor was noted on every scan report, not on path reports.  CT, PET and MRI all had size noted and all slightly different but close.  I had a roughly 5-6 cm tumor.

Found this page on a National Cancer Institute site. At the bottom of the page:  images of tumor size equivalents

Cazz said:

Size - does it matter?

I still can't find any measurement, although I have a beautiful color photo of it from the colonoscopy!  I think nobody measured it because it was so close that it could easily be felt with a finger - and you wouldn't believe the number of drs, nurses, interns etc. that stuck their finger up my bum over that initial time period, I think just to see what it felt like.  It all just confirmed my opinion that I don't think I'd like anal sex, thank you!  I did have an initial CT and PET scan but was not as good at asking for and filing everything as I am now, the CT scan may yet show up in a file marked "cancer misc" or some such.  Its no big deal, it was as big as it was and, as of a month ago its no longer there, and I'm just hoping it stays away.

Tallorder: maybe we will meet one day and can have a nice chat during the hour that we inevitably have to wait to see Dr Eng!  My next appointment is on March 21 for a CT and to see Dr Eng on the 22nd.

Carol

 

 

 

I would enjoy that. I'm due for a visit in early April. Wishing you all the best! Please keep us posted.