New - Husband diagnosed

welcome
Sorry to hear about your husband's dx but I am glad to see you are being proactive and getting information and support; you will find that the support is one of the most important aspects of this battle! As you have read in other threads, try to limit what you search out on the internet, it will scare the bejeesus out of you! Come here and remind yourself of all the people currently battling and battling successfully! Hopefully his tumor has been found early and his prognosis after surgery will be very good! Make sure the pathology department at the hospital tests the tumor for tolerance/intolerance to the different kinds of chemo; it will help if he needs to be given chemo at a later time, making it more efficient for all! Discuss it with your husband's surgeon.
mary

Welcome to the best site ever
Kathleen,

We are sorry for the reason you had to find us, but happy you are here. You will get the best help here...as was said, stay OFF the internet. Anything there is old info, and based on statistics. None of us are a statistic.

You mentioned staging. There are differing views on this. My oncologist and gastroenterologist both told me their tests indicate I am Stage 3 - but the surgeon says we won't know until he actually goes in and the pathologies are done on the tumors and maybe, just maybe, I'll be a stage 2. Who cares? Just cut the beast out!

There is so much to learn and understand. Keep coming here with questions - ANY questions, nothing is forbidden here.

God Bless you both,

Vicki

similar story
I was diagnosed in September after colonoscopy and had a hemi-colectomy in October. I had seven of seventeen lymph nodes removed that came back positive. Stage 3c, but I feel good and even though I am on a 6 month chemo regimen with FOLFOX, it has changed my life in some good ways. This is a great place to find answers. I hope your husband's tumor is small and nothing more needs to be done. Even if it needs some Chemo, we are here it help you guys, just like the people on this site have helped me. Your a very important person, I would be lost without my wife's support, she is the most important person in my life and a good partner is an essential thing.

Ask questions, be part of this community and know this. There are people on this message board that (many) who have whipped this, we will too. Best of everything.

You can get by quite well with half a colon or less
I know it is scary but they took half of my colon and I get by pretty good. The most important thing is that they take enough to get good cancer free margins on each side. I thought they were only going to take a few inches until I talked to the surgeon too. They need to get past the cancer on each side and also take a good number of lymph nodes ( usually at least twelve) with the colon. I have never heard about the blood supply and transverse colon. I get by with half a colon pretty well, sometimes the stool is a little loose, but I am never out of control. The surgery will be over soon and you can begin to get conclusive evidence about what that lesion is for sure. Try to be as positive as you can, make plans and remember after this surgery to keep living your lives, make some plans for about six months from now and look past the immediate, life will continue and still be rich and full.

Mike

Kathleen808 said:

questions
Hi,
Well here come some questions. We spoke to the surgeon today and he said he just got the report from the GI doc and my husbands 4cnm tumor is right in the center of his tranverse colon. He said that he would have to take the entire transverse colon and a little bit of both sides. I think he said 3 ft. This sounds like a lot, we thought it would be 1 ft. He also mentioned something about the transverse colon being something unique because of the blood source. Does that make any sense? My husband is 5 days from surgery. Life seems so normal right now but it feels like we are ready to enter Mars. A bit scary.
Aloha,
Kathleen

I don't know
Kathleen, I don't know what to tell you about the blood source for the transverse colon. My tumor was in my sigmoid colon, and they took about 2 ft. Talk to the doctor more, so you understand exactly what's going to happen.

*hugs*
Gail

This list of terms may help.
This all sucks, as we all know, but this discussion board is great. You might also find The Colon Club to be of interest. Just Google it. On its list of posts, I found a terminology list of many of the abbreviations that are so confusing to new Semicolons. I've copied it for you. It's on the list of this board somewhere, but buried.

I've been to Hawaii a number of times, three when I was in the Navy. Beautiful area. So, here's your list. Hope it's of use to you.-Mike

Many people new to this disease and new to this board can get lost in the alphabet soup of the terminology. It's almost impossible to read an abstract of a clinical trial without some of these terms and abbreviations.
So here's a start for translation. Hopefully others will augment and amend as necessary:

CRC - colorectal cancer
mCRC - metastatic colorectal cancer
DX - diagnosis
TX - treatment
PX - prognosis
OS - overall survival
PFS - progression free survival - used to describe the time that a patient is stable, or showing no worsening/progression of the disease
DFS - disease free survival - used to describe the time that a patient is NED
NED - no evidence of disease
MRD - minimal residual disease
LN - Lymph node
PSD - peritoneal surface disease - means that the cancer has spread to the abdominal cavity and is on the surface of the organs rather than within the organs
HIPEC - heated chemotherapy used to wash out the peritoneal/abdominal cavity
Met - metastasis
Lesion - something fishy, usually a tumor
Neoplastic process - potentially cancerous activity
Imaging - generally some type of scan or X-ray
PS - Performance Status - a term used to describe your overall ability to function, dressing yourself, eating, physical activity, etc.

FOLFOX - chemo regimen using 5-FU, Leucovorin, and Oxaliplatin (Eloxatin)
Oxi - shorthand for Oxaliplatin
FOLFIRI - chemo regimen using 5-FU, Leucovorin and Irinotecan (Camptosar)
Xeloda (Capecitabine) - Oral 5-FU (pill form)
XELOX - Xeloda and Oxaliplatin - also called CAPOX for CAPecitabine and OXaliplatin
XELIRI - Xeloda and Irinotecan
Bevacizumab (Avastin) - a drug used to stop new blood vessels from forming
Anti-angiogenesis - the process of stopping new blood vessels from forming
VEGF - Vascular endothelial growth factor - the part of the cancer cell dealing with new blood vessel formation
Cetuximab (Erbitux) - HELP!
Panitumibab (Vectibix) - HELP!
EGFR - Epithelial Growth Factor Receptor - the key to Erbitux and Vectibix's actions
KRAS - a part of the DNA of the cancer cell which they now know has a connection to whether the EGFR class of drugs will be effective on your cancer.
KRASwt - Wild Type - means that the cancer's KRAS gene has not mutated and will respond to the EGFR drugs
KRASmt - Mutant Type - means that the cancer's KRAS gene HAS mutated, and thus is unlikely to respond to the EGFR drugs

Peripheral Neuropathy - a side effect of Oxaliplatin in which the nerves in your extremities are damaged and you experience numbness and some loss of use of your hands and feet

Hand and Foot syndrome - a side effect of 5-FU in which your hands and feet become tender and the skin can crack and peel. Can be more common with oral 5-FU (Xeloda)

Anti-emetic - any kind of drug that is used to combat nausea and vomiting

Blood work - I'm punting on that one!

Adjuvant - chemo treatment that follows surgical removal of all the cancer they can find -- it generally refers to treatment done when the patient is presumably cancer free
Neo-adjuvant - chemo that is done prior to surgery both to potentially shrink any known lesions and also to offer some systemic treatment to prevent new lesions from cropping up

Resection - surgically removing a big chunk of something - like your colon or your liver. It offers the best potential for a curative surgery because they can usually take out the cancer, and also some buffer zone tissue which is referred to as the "margin."

Margins - the amount of cancer free tissue surrounding the tumor - they determine this when the resected tissue is sent to the pathology lab
Radial margin - the amount of colon wall that was left cancer free
Longitudinal margin - the amount of colon - lengthwise - that was left cancer free in the chunk that was removed surgically

RFA - Radio Frequency Ablation - this is a localized treatment for tumors where a probe is inserted into the tumor and heated with radio waves to cook the cancer to death. It is often done when the lesions in question cannot be resected for some reason.
Cryoablation - same idea as RFA, but they freeze the tumor instead of cooking it

I'm pasting in stuff from others' posts

ADL = activities of daily life (eating, dressing, showering, etc.)
RCa = rectal cancer
MRC = metastatic rectal cancer
TNM = an attempt at universal staging evaluation that attempts to unify across countries analysis tumors and extent of spread of disease. T refers to tumor and can be modified X-4, N refers to node involvement and is modified X-2 and M refers to metastasis to distant organs, modified X, 1 or 0. The number that follows T or N indicates severity; X indicates it can't be assessed yet, and the number that follows M indicates presence (X for not assessed, 1 for present, 0 for not present.). It will be types out as TnNnMn.
T4N2M1 means tumor spread to distant organs, node involvement to 4 or more regional lymph nodes, mets-yes and is equal to a Stage IV diagnosis. More explanation of the TNM system: http://cancerstaging.blogspot.com/2005/ ... ectum.html

Bloodwork:
CBC: Complete blood count, including both hematology and serum chemistry analysis. Hematology can usually be run quickly, and checks things like white counts and red blood cell counts. Serum chem analysis takes longer (the machine runs more slowly.)

CEA - Carcino-embryonic Antigen - this is a tumor marker for Colon Cancer. Not all colon cancers emit this marker, so it is not useful for every patient. It if is a good indicator for your cancer, they can monitor the trends in your bloodwork. If it starts to trend up then they generally will go on a hunt to figure out what's up.

APR = anterior perineal resection
TPE or CPE = total (or complete) pelvic exenteration (used to be called pelvic evisceration). It's complete removal of all remaining organs in the pelvis, including the bladder, and usually requires double ostomies.
LAR = low anterior resection

TPN = total parenteral nutrition, or nutrient liquid delivered via IV or PICC line.

CR = Complete response to chemotherapy
PR = Partial response to chemotherapy
PD = Progressive disease while on chemotherapy

Refractory - resistant or unresponsive to various chemotherapy treatments

onc = our little term to mean oncologist

palliative = treatments necessary to make patient more comfortable or have less pain

trainer said:

This list of terms may help.
This all sucks, as we all know, but this discussion board is great. You might also find The Colon Club to be of interest. Just Google it. On its list of posts, I found a terminology list of many of the abbreviations that are so confusing to new Semicolons. I've copied it for you. It's on the list of this board somewhere, but buried.

I've been to Hawaii a number of times, three when I was in the Navy. Beautiful area. So, here's your list. Hope it's of use to you.-Mike

Many people new to this disease and new to this board can get lost in the alphabet soup of the terminology. It's almost impossible to read an abstract of a clinical trial without some of these terms and abbreviations.
So here's a start for translation. Hopefully others will augment and amend as necessary:

CRC - colorectal cancer
mCRC - metastatic colorectal cancer
DX - diagnosis
TX - treatment
PX - prognosis
OS - overall survival
PFS - progression free survival - used to describe the time that a patient is stable, or showing no worsening/progression of the disease
DFS - disease free survival - used to describe the time that a patient is NED
NED - no evidence of disease
MRD - minimal residual disease
LN - Lymph node
PSD - peritoneal surface disease - means that the cancer has spread to the abdominal cavity and is on the surface of the organs rather than within the organs
HIPEC - heated chemotherapy used to wash out the peritoneal/abdominal cavity
Met - metastasis
Lesion - something fishy, usually a tumor
Neoplastic process - potentially cancerous activity
Imaging - generally some type of scan or X-ray
PS - Performance Status - a term used to describe your overall ability to function, dressing yourself, eating, physical activity, etc.

FOLFOX - chemo regimen using 5-FU, Leucovorin, and Oxaliplatin (Eloxatin)
Oxi - shorthand for Oxaliplatin
FOLFIRI - chemo regimen using 5-FU, Leucovorin and Irinotecan (Camptosar)
Xeloda (Capecitabine) - Oral 5-FU (pill form)
XELOX - Xeloda and Oxaliplatin - also called CAPOX for CAPecitabine and OXaliplatin
XELIRI - Xeloda and Irinotecan
Bevacizumab (Avastin) - a drug used to stop new blood vessels from forming
Anti-angiogenesis - the process of stopping new blood vessels from forming
VEGF - Vascular endothelial growth factor - the part of the cancer cell dealing with new blood vessel formation
Cetuximab (Erbitux) - HELP!
Panitumibab (Vectibix) - HELP!
EGFR - Epithelial Growth Factor Receptor - the key to Erbitux and Vectibix's actions
KRAS - a part of the DNA of the cancer cell which they now know has a connection to whether the EGFR class of drugs will be effective on your cancer.
KRASwt - Wild Type - means that the cancer's KRAS gene has not mutated and will respond to the EGFR drugs
KRASmt - Mutant Type - means that the cancer's KRAS gene HAS mutated, and thus is unlikely to respond to the EGFR drugs

Peripheral Neuropathy - a side effect of Oxaliplatin in which the nerves in your extremities are damaged and you experience numbness and some loss of use of your hands and feet

Hand and Foot syndrome - a side effect of 5-FU in which your hands and feet become tender and the skin can crack and peel. Can be more common with oral 5-FU (Xeloda)

Anti-emetic - any kind of drug that is used to combat nausea and vomiting

Blood work - I'm punting on that one!

Adjuvant - chemo treatment that follows surgical removal of all the cancer they can find -- it generally refers to treatment done when the patient is presumably cancer free
Neo-adjuvant - chemo that is done prior to surgery both to potentially shrink any known lesions and also to offer some systemic treatment to prevent new lesions from cropping up

Resection - surgically removing a big chunk of something - like your colon or your liver. It offers the best potential for a curative surgery because they can usually take out the cancer, and also some buffer zone tissue which is referred to as the "margin."

Margins - the amount of cancer free tissue surrounding the tumor - they determine this when the resected tissue is sent to the pathology lab
Radial margin - the amount of colon wall that was left cancer free
Longitudinal margin - the amount of colon - lengthwise - that was left cancer free in the chunk that was removed surgically

RFA - Radio Frequency Ablation - this is a localized treatment for tumors where a probe is inserted into the tumor and heated with radio waves to cook the cancer to death. It is often done when the lesions in question cannot be resected for some reason.
Cryoablation - same idea as RFA, but they freeze the tumor instead of cooking it

I'm pasting in stuff from others' posts

ADL = activities of daily life (eating, dressing, showering, etc.)
RCa = rectal cancer
MRC = metastatic rectal cancer
TNM = an attempt at universal staging evaluation that attempts to unify across countries analysis tumors and extent of spread of disease. T refers to tumor and can be modified X-4, N refers to node involvement and is modified X-2 and M refers to metastasis to distant organs, modified X, 1 or 0. The number that follows T or N indicates severity; X indicates it can't be assessed yet, and the number that follows M indicates presence (X for not assessed, 1 for present, 0 for not present.). It will be types out as TnNnMn.
T4N2M1 means tumor spread to distant organs, node involvement to 4 or more regional lymph nodes, mets-yes and is equal to a Stage IV diagnosis. More explanation of the TNM system: http://cancerstaging.blogspot.com/2005/ ... ectum.html

Bloodwork:
CBC: Complete blood count, including both hematology and serum chemistry analysis. Hematology can usually be run quickly, and checks things like white counts and red blood cell counts. Serum chem analysis takes longer (the machine runs more slowly.)

CEA - Carcino-embryonic Antigen - this is a tumor marker for Colon Cancer. Not all colon cancers emit this marker, so it is not useful for every patient. It if is a good indicator for your cancer, they can monitor the trends in your bloodwork. If it starts to trend up then they generally will go on a hunt to figure out what's up.

APR = anterior perineal resection
TPE or CPE = total (or complete) pelvic exenteration (used to be called pelvic evisceration). It's complete removal of all remaining organs in the pelvis, including the bladder, and usually requires double ostomies.
LAR = low anterior resection

TPN = total parenteral nutrition, or nutrient liquid delivered via IV or PICC line.

CR = Complete response to chemotherapy
PR = Partial response to chemotherapy
PD = Progressive disease while on chemotherapy

Refractory - resistant or unresponsive to various chemotherapy treatments

onc = our little term to mean oncologist

palliative = treatments necessary to make patient more comfortable or have less pain

That was very thoughtful of
That was very thoughtful of you to post that for Kathleen! I wish I'd had that when I first started this er....adventure!