BRONCHOAVELOR CARCINOMA

Me too
I have BAC or at least my surgeon and pathologist say that what I have is a very close approximation of it and more BAC than anything else. They told me that it is the sort of cancer more commonly found in nonsmokers. I know it grates when all the billboards and media suggest you can avoid lung cancer if you just don't smoke, but only about 9 out of 10 cancers are caused by smoking. I'm one of the 1 out of 10 folks. My house tested negative for radon, my folks never smoked and neither does my husband. I am more active than most of my peers and always have been. I always ate lots of vegetables and fruits. I'm not overweight. If it was healthy I did it. If it was unhealthy, I avoided it. But I still have been diagnosed with cancer not once but twice (breast and lung, both stage 1).Cancer is a disease, not a punishment and we just don't always know why we get it. Even if you didn't do everything the way the doctors recommended, you don't deserve this disease (not that I'm recommending anyone take up smoking or an unhealthy lifestyle...).

One of the good things about BAC is that it is very slow growing. Sometimes, when it is caught early in stage 1 A it can be eliminated with surgery. However, when it is not gone, it can come back in either lung, usually in a shot-gun like pattern. Another good thing about BAC is that it rarely moves outside the lung like other lung cancers do.

I'm not sure whether it is good or bad that many of the regular chemotherapy regimes that many of the folks on this board take are not recommended for folks with BAC. Apparently it grows so slowly that the regular chemos don't work well on it. So maybe I don't have that trick in my bag of tricks to destroy the cancer when it rears its ugly head but I don't have the side effects of regular chemotherapy either. Some of the targetted chemos like Tarceva may work very well on BAC. They have less side effects, but I have no idea if I have the right genetic makeup to respond to it. I will probably find out when I am in need of something.

Right now, I'm doing okay. Umm, there are nodules in both lungs at this point but all are smaller than 1 centimeter, I have no symptoms, and my surgeon recommends watchful waiting. One nodule that was there two years ago has actually disappeared. I wish they all would! So I plan to enjoy my summer and take things one day at a time.

Hope that helps.