Post Op Vats Surgery 4 week checkup........*****UPDATE*****

lesvanb said:

Clift
this will also get to you after your appointment....

I've never had lymph node involvement and the liver met I had at diagnosis actually shrank a bit from the time of dx May 08 until it was removed Oct 08. Only had neoadjuvant in June/July Zeloda 5 weeks and 4 tx of oxi because of infection that put me in the hsptl during radiation tx. This time I have 2 metabolically active nodules under 1 cm in lungs that aren't growing fast at all but are increasing with uptake each scan now to 4 and 6 (one PET/CT scan in June 10 and Sept 10).CEA has not budged in the 6 months from .09 and should be an indicator though doc is now waffling about that. However from what I've read CEA sometimes does NOT rise with crc lung mets. My situation made me an ideal candidate according to doc who is head of clinical trial from UKansas for IV Vitamin C therapy because it specifically addresses metabolic uptake in suspect nodules. I am aware though that chemo might be just around the corner because the nodules are bilateral and one lymph node had grown (under 1 cm) but is now stable. When I first was dx I remember the radiation oncologist saying that yes cancer can spread only in the blood and not show in the the lymph. For me her statement is proving true.

love to you, Leslie

mine spread via the blood and not lymph at first
Regarding what Leslie is saying and you questioned, can cancer spread through the blood if nothing has shown up in the lymph nodes? I was told this is even more common in rectal cancer vs. higher up in the colon because there is a major blood vessel that goes directly from the rectal area to the liver. When I was first diagnosed and had an ultrasound colonoscopy to look at the outside of the colon/rectum and surrounding lymph nodes, nothing showed up on any of my lymph nodes. I was initially staged as a stage IIB (the tumor had grown through the bowel wall). A week later, when I was "routinely" given a CT scan, all doctors were amazed to discover I was actually a stage IV and that it was already in my liver and both lungs. Nothing ever showed up in any lymph node on any scan (CT, PET/CT or MRI) until about a year and a half after my diagnosis & that was the right hilar node in my lungs. So, I am assuming that my cancer spread through my blood.
That introduces a scary thought... could someone in this situation who didn't know they had cancer, actually give cancer to someone else through blood they donated? Hmmm... I never heard that one addressed before, but it sure makes you wonder. They don't test your blood for cancer when you go to donate blood to the Red Cross or wherever (as far as I know, anyhow).

Lisa