If only local modes are involved, is chemo always recommended?

newenglandguy -
Phil made a good point about filling in your "profile page".

Most of us have provided a simple biography of our condition
on our profile page. Doing that, allows anyone to "click" on your
name and read what you've provided; you won't have to keep
repeating your history, it'll be right there!

Just click on the left side of your screen, where it says: My CSN Space
Fill in some of the blanks, and away you go! There are also provisions
for a "blog", etc.

As far as the nodes and treatment?

My surgeon(s) explained the purpose of the nodes, as tiny jails
that hold bad things until the immune system can dispose of them.
(I must have been drugged, they way they talked to me....."tiny jails"?)

Anyway, that's what nodes do; that's their purpose. When/if they
find too many nodes with cancer cells within, they feel it's safe
to assume that the cancer has spread well beyond the initial tumor,
and attempt to assign treatment accordingly.

It's the accepted practice to remove 20 nodes for testing. Less
is not considered a satisfactory amount for a reliable test.

If there are more than 4 nodes out of 20 with cancer, it is considered
more advanced, and moves the patient into the "next stage" up.

Finding nodes with cancer involves the removal of the node. They do
not grow back, and once gone, we lose that extra bit of "protection".

There is nothing "kind" when it comes to cancer!

Chemotherapy is designed to damage tumors and/or large clusters
of cancer cells. It was not designed to "seek out and kill" individual
cancer cells, and does not work well to do that. To date, there is
no "targeted therapy" that will direct chemicals only to cancer cells
and avoid damaging good cells. They seem to be getting close with
doing that, but unfortunately, not close enough.

So why chemo? It's a good question, and one that many Oncologists
are presently asking! Opinions vary greatly, and many oncologists
try to provide their patient with something..... and the only things
that are available to them are the chemicals presently FDA approved.

As Phil said, there are no guarantees with anything available for
our fight. We try to do what we feel is best, but too often we don't
listen to our inner instincts; our basic intuition that has been provided
to us for basic survival, and assume that those with "better education"
have the best answers for our survival.

We all had to make choices with treatment and care, and it's not
an easy task! It's much more simple to toss the problem of
decision making to some physician that's gained our trust,
and put our lives into their hands, instead of our own hands
that were provided to us for that job.

There's plenty of information on this board that can provide
some insight regarding fellow cancer patient's choices and
treatments. Some are of the conventional variety, and some
are of the "alternative" types. Read and explore as much and
as deep as you can. It's your life, and only -you- should make
the choice of care and treatment.

You'll do fine. just don't allow fear to be your driving force.
When you overcome any fear, you can think things out with
better objectivity, and that is what is required for survival!

Wishing you all the best,

John