Question about tumor shrinkage

vinny1
vinny1 Member Posts: 10
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi,
Thank you all again this is a great site and it is a great support for me. I do not have rectal cancer, my husband does but I am the one that needs to connect with other survivors; learning as much as I can, he is totally focused on beating this and putting his energy into that. Now for the question. I have browsed pages 500 - 300 and every person that has had chemoradiotherapy has had great success in shrinking the tumor, most tumors have been completely eradiacted. My husbands tumor shrank by 50% for sure, maybe more. Is this good? The surgeon seemed to think so but reading things on this site it doesn't seem as good.

Thank you again.

Comments

  • vinny3
    vinny3 Member Posts: 928 Member
    #2
    The response to the chemo/radiation is good. In my case the tumor appeared to disappear. The mistake we made, I believe, is in having a local excision then and I don't believe it was large enough. If your husband is having an Anterior Resection or AP Resection then he should have very good odds at beating this.

    ****
  • Moesimo
    Moesimo Member Posts: 1,072 Member
    #3
    My tumor was big-- 3.5 by 2.5 cm. I had preop radiation also and my tumor only shrunk "slightly" per my surgeon. But I am happy to say that I remain NED and my surgery was almost 3 1/2 years ago. I know that alot of peoples tumors disappeared, but I would not worry too much. 50% shrinkage is good and soon it will be all gone by surgery. Good luck and keep us posted.
  • KathiM
    KathiM Member Posts: 8,028 Member
    #4
    Shrinkage is shrinkage...all is VERY GOOD!!!! I HATE this following phrase, but it is true..."EVERYONE is different". You know, I didn't have anything looked at till after 2 months after treatment...it REALLY surprised even my 'seasoned' gastric surgeon...NO ONE expected it to be gone...I remain an anomily!!!

    50% is EXCELLENT!!! The beast is on the RUN!!!!

    Hugs, Kathi
  • spongebob
    spongebob Member Posts: 2,565 Member
    #5
    Ahoy, Mrs. Vinny -

    Think of it this way; if you could shrink the calories in a chocolate fudge brownie sundae by 50%, wouldn't that be good? You know it!

    Cutting ****'s tumor size by half is great. the more it shrinks, the better his margins will be and the better the margins, the more "normal" tissue the docs can keep. Everyone responds to chemo differently, sounds to me like **** is doing great.

    Keeping you both in my prayers.

    - SpongeBob

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