GE Junction Cancer

Hello,

My case isn't an exact parallel of your husband's, but there are enough similarities that you may find my story useful.  I've had EC three times, once stage III and the last two times were stage IV.  When I started out, it was at the gastric junction.  I was eligible for surgery though, so my treatment differed from your husband's.  But I still did a month of radiation and six cycles of Carboplatin/Taxol.  After the surgery, I then did a bonus course of the same chemo, but at a higher dose/full strength.  The side effects of the full strength chemo were more evident than with the lower dose.  That was in 2008/2009.  The whole course of my treatment took about a year.  I had a complete response and I thought I was done with it.  

I was, in fact, not done with it.  In 2011 I had a recurrence and this time the tumor had spread to a lung.  That's really bad.  I was given 7-8 month to live and my doctor stressed for me to get my affairs in order sooner rather than later.  Surgery wasn't an option, so it was just chemo.  I was going to take part in a clinical trial, but then my HER2 test came back positive, and herceptin replaced the trial in my treatment.  I had 12 rounds of Folfox every two weeks and had the herceptin every week.  The Folfox nearly killed me, but it did its main job of killing the cancer.  I had another complete response and tested clean for years.  In late 2018, I had a second recurrence and it was in a lung again.  This time surgery was the plan and I had a chunk of lung removed and all of the cancer was in that chunk, so another complete response.  I've also continued to receive the weekly herceptin since 2011.  I'm actually typing this from my infusion center.  

After my 1st surgery, the esophajectomy, I had a feeding tube.  But it clogged and wouldn't work so I just began eating & drinking real food.  Well, toast & tea.  I'm glad my experience with the feeding tube was quick...I didn't much like it. Hopefully, your husband can get back to regular food quickly.  

Hope your husband keeps getting good results from his treatment,

Ed

My husband was also diagnosed as stage 4 adenocarcinoma in September.  His had also spread to distant lymph nodes.  His lymph nodes were above the lung.  He will finish his chemo and radiation next week.  Thankfully, he did not have to get  a feeding tube.  Nor did he have the mouth sores.  His main side effects were extreme fatique, nausea and bad taste of food.  They are not planning to do another scan for 4-6 weeks to see how effective the treatments were.   We know they helped.  He could hardly eat at all when treatment began and by week 3 was able to eat most anything.  It will be a very long 4-6 weeks until we get the scan and see what the next steps will be.  The oncologist will not even discuss possibilities.  He just says, wait and see about the scan.