Colon and Breast Cancer at the same time

BURCU
BURCU Member Posts: 2
in Colorectal Cancer #1

Dear All,

My mother was recently diagnosed with colon (Stage: IIIB) and breast cancer (Stage: II, HER2+). She is 53 years old. She will start her chemo as soon as she heals from her colon resection. Her medical oncologist will put her to Herceptin for the breast and CapeOx (Capecitabine+Oxaliplatin) for the colon. What is your opion about this treatment program?

Comments

  • jen2012
    jen2012 Member Posts: 1,607 Member
    #2
    Welcome and i'm sorry about

    Welcome and i'm sorry about your mom.  No advice about the treatment, but I hope things go well and she can quickly get through treatment and on with her life.

  • Trubrit
    Trubrit Member Posts: 5,796 Member
    #3
    Rough!

    Poor lady! 

    We have members who were diagonosed with one and then got the other, but I've never heard of anyone being diagnosed wtih both at the same time. My heart goes out to your mum, and to the family. 

    Oxaliplatin what one of the drugs I was on. The side effects can be all over the place, and differ from one person to the other.

    Peripheral Neuropathy is one of the side effects you really need to keep an eye on. The Oncogogist should be on the ball, and if symptoms get bad, the dosage should be lowered. 

    There are of course multiple side effects with this drug, and as I said before, you never know just which ones are going to affect you. 

    I know others will be along to help and advice. 

    My suggestion is to stay here on the forum, both the colon and breast forums will be a great help to you and your mum. 

    Please wish your mum all of the best. A positive attitude at this time will go a long way, even though you may think being positive is impossible with such a diagnosis. 

    Sue - Trubrit

  • beaumontdave
    beaumontdave Member Posts: 1,280 Member
    #4
    Sorry about your mom, like

    Sorry about your mom, like everyone here knows, life ain't fair, not even a little. I'm suprised they aren't using 5fu with oxaliplatin, but maybe this is newer stuff. Hopefully they get the edge on both, have faith........Dave

  • DD3
    DD3 Member Posts: 136 Member
    #5
    I'm sorry

    to hear.  One type of cancer is more than enough to deal with.  I'm a caretaker for my wife.  She was diagnosed with Stage IIIB CRC.  However, a month prior to that she had a momogram done (routine) and they saw something suspect.  They did a biospy and came back negative... Kind of.  They recommended a lumpectomey (sp?) and scheduled it.  Then all hell broke loose with her next diagnosis of CRC.  Surgeon and oncologist agreed to go after the CRC first.  So, the journey began with Chemo/Radiation --> surgery --->FOLFOX.  Once that was done it was back to see what was going on with breast.  Great news nothing was going on. Went in to remove and biospy the area and nothing was there.  Nothing.  She is taking tomoxifen for a "prevenitive" but that's it.  Just normal scheduled mamograms now.  I did ask the surgeon and oncoligist if CRC and breast cancer are related or one could cause the other.  Never got a definitive answer.  Good luck and hang in there.

  • Hamhur
    Hamhur Member Posts: 2
    edited May 2017 #6
    colon and breast cancer

    I am sorry to hear that your mom had both cancers.   Being that your original post is 18 months ago, I hope your mom is doing well.    To give you some sort of insight and hope, my husband's journey began in July 2009 (then age 56) with a Stage III colon cancer diagnosis.  

    He underwent colon surgery, incision site became infected so needed 2nd surgery, had a wound vac, and adjuvant chemo therapy postponed for months after surgery.  Made it thru only 4 rounds of FOLFOX before collapsing from extreme diarreah and spent 5 weeks in hospital and 2 more in rehab in early 2010.   No more chemo after that.   Then we focused on nutrition and he had IV Vitamin C.  NED until January 2014.  

    Then it was discovered after an increasing CEA that he had one lung nodule from colon cancer and a new primary breast cancer.   So two cancers at the same time are possible.   Breast cancer is so very rare in men.   So in March 2014 he had a lower left lobectomy and a right masectomy.  Then did a few rounds of taxol and heceptin.  Oncologists thought it was more important to treat breast cancer as it was HER Positive.   The taxol made his wbc drop to zero.  He developed sepsis which can be fatal.   After a week's stay in hospital, ned until October 2015 when CEA started rising again.

    October 2015,  CT scan showed new multiple lung nodules.   Nodules were kept stable with Xeoloda and Avastin until recently.   They are now growing bigger again.   Xeloda is the pill form of 5FU and he is tolerating the pills much better than the 5FU from 2009.  Only one or two bad diarreah days per cycle managed with Immodium.   Now going to add oxipilatin back into the mix next week.   

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