Treatment Plan

tclem
tclem Member Posts: 22
in Esophageal Cancer #1
I just called my dad's radiation and chemo oncologist because he was confused by the treatment plan. He showed up today for radiation and chemo and they wanted to hook up the infusion bag to stay for 4 days. He was not aware of that (or didn't hear that part) and asked to push it back a week because his mother was just diagnosed with breast cancer and he wants to go for a visit. Anyway... the current plan is daily (6x per week) radiation for 6 weeks and 2 doses of chemo. He will go in this Monday for a 3.5 hour treatment and home with a 4 day infusion of 5FU. 5 weeks from now he will repeat that chemo process.

Does that seem inline what those of you that have had chemo/radiation? My dad said he was getting 11 weeks of on/off chemo treatment but I have no idea who told him that. I hate being so far away and not getting things first hand.

T

Comments

  • paul61
    paul61 Member Posts: 1,391 Member
    #2
    That sounds typical
    T,

    Your Dad's treatment plan sounds "typical". Most people have between 20 and 36 cycles of radiation therapy and two to six cycles of chemotherapy. The radiation therapy is given daily to fractionalize the dosage. The chemotherapy is usually a cocktail of three medications. Two of them are given via infusion at the hospital or chemotherapy center and the 5 FU is typically given via a personal infusion pump over a period of days. There is normally at least 21 days between the infusions to allow the patient to recover from the effects of the chemotherapy drugs.

    If your Dad is planning on traveling it is probably a good idea to delay the chemotherapy a bit. The common side effects of chemotherapy include nausea and sometimes diarrhea. They have medications to treat the side effects but traveling is not fun when you are not feeling up to par. Depending on what stage your Dad has been diagnosed at, they may discuss surgery.

    None of us really know what to expect when we go in for chemotherapy so it is not surprising that your Dad did not expect the 5 FU pump.

    Best Regards,

    Paul Adams
    McCormick, South Carolina

    DX 10/22/2009 T2N1M0 Stage IIB
    12/03/2009 Ivor Lewis
    2/8 through 6/14/2010 Adjuvant Chemo Cisplatin, Epirubicin, 5 FU
    Two year survivor

    Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance!
  • ABC321
    ABC321 Member Posts: 52
    #3
    Sounds right...
    Hi from Oz,
    My partner recently finished his first round of treatment. 5.5 weeks of radiation and two weeks of chemo (one at the start and one at the finish). The plan was to have further chemo week 8 and then week 11. We pushed back on the week 8 so james to get stronger, so now planned for week 10. The chemo was 5Fu and cisplatin, so it sounds like the regime here in Australia is very similar.
    Steve
  • TerryV
    TerryV Member Posts: 887
    #4
    ABC321 said:

    Sounds right...
    Hi from Oz,
    My partner recently finished his first round of treatment. 5.5 weeks of radiation and two weeks of chemo (one at the start and one at the finish). The plan was to have further chemo week 8 and then week 11. We pushed back on the week 8 so james to get stronger, so now planned for week 10. The chemo was 5Fu and cisplatin, so it sounds like the regime here in Australia is very similar.
    Steve

    My husband did....
    26 rads out patient with in patient Cisplatin / 5 FU on weeks 2 and 6. He was staged a T3N1M0 on 05/19/11. He had THE Surgery on 09/08/11 and received a Clean Path on 09/13/11.

    Regime is *very* similar :)

    All the best to you!

    Terry
    Wife to Nick, age 48

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