Scan Questions

Before I say the following, I have found it easier for me to expect the worst and hope for the best.  The couple of times I got hopeful during all this (expecting a good scan and getting a dud) it was harsher to deal with than reverse.

That being said, sometimes tumors can grow even while be affected by the chemo.  I had a couple, including my largest one in my lungs, that finally stopped growing.  (About 5cm).  More of my tumors showed signs of dying after 20 rounds of chemo, whereas I thought by this time whichever ones would have responded would have.  Unchanged is not bad, not perfect, but not bad.  Means they are stable which is a big part of the game.  And they may not have begun shrinking yet if they are dying.  Also the increase of .2 cm very well may be considered slow (probably is in fact) based on the size of the tumor on last scan and space between the scans.  And without a doubt the liver going down by half is flat out awesome news and shows that the chemp is working to a good extent.  

Some other thoughts - some tumors grow before shrinking but not sure how often when on chemo vs immunotherapy 

"Atypical response — usually tumor enlargement followed by shrinking — is seen in 20% of cancer patients who respond to immunotherapy, according to a study of response patterns in patients with a variety of tumors, including melanoma, genitourinary carcinomas, and lung tumors."

I think I had seen something about that on chemo, but cannot find it.  

Also sometimes chemo takes longer to reach certain areas depending on the vascular set up.  

Lastly, for us chemo for life types - I propose we all get together to celebrate when they make the break-through to get us off this.  Every day it gets closer.

Grasp at straws, or whatever you want to call it.  Good news is good news on the liver. Shrinkage is shrinkage. Run with it as fast as you can.  Tell yourself, if your liver mets shrink, then so can the other. 

While you are obviously working on those mets, top it off with lots of positive thoughts. 

What is in the future is in the future.  

We'll see this as a step in the right direction. 

Tru

I know that after lung radiotherapy, I was advised that it might take months for tumor cells to die off and disappear following treatment, so they didn't even schedule a scan until four months later, and even then the radiation oncologist wanted to wait several more months for another scan before really judging the effectiveness of the treatment.

LUng sugeon that I see and who painstakingly explains my CT scans has told me that there are variation in the "thickness" of the slices that the CT scan measures so that the scan doesn't always slice the tumor in exactly the same spot than can account for slightly different measurements, also if you are on the scanning table a little more to one side or you are not inhaling there can be slight differences from scan to scan--also if read by different radiologists as well. I thik the fact there is no new growth and decrease in existing is fabulous news for you, So happy to hear!!

abita said:

I wonder if my not taking

I wonder if my not taking deep breaths changed anything. I only breathed about halfway when they said breathe in

and hope that your Onc sees what he wants to see, which is shrinkage. 

Tru

I was told by my oncolgyst that liver usually responses to chemo better than lungs. eg after 6 chemos a person who had 5 on 4 cm met can have 2 on 3 cm met. When I had a recurrance I developed multiple tiny mets on my lungs like 2 mm . They do slowly increasing even if I am on chemo. Butt.

I got it. You are right. It had to be by. I translated wrong from Finnish.