Torie,
Thanks for the information. I too had Stage II Squamous Cell Lung cancer
removed via an operation last September. Like Carla, I'm interviewing
oncologists and trying to determine which way to go. I'm going to an
oncologist at Sloan Kettering next Tuesday and will be asking him about the
alternate therapies you mentioned (monoclonal antibodies, transfer factor,
interleukin 2, adoptive immunotherapy, etc). I would really appreciate it
if you could direct me to the sites on the internet that provide the best
information.
I had one chemo treatment and am praying that there's a better way, but I
plan of course to do whatever is necessary. Did the doctor say to what
extent the Carboplatin and Taxol will improve your chances? My current
oncologist says that the clinical trials done so far don't show any
reduction in the rate of return whether or not chemo or radiation is done -
so I'm really interested in other doctors' input.
I was also very interested in what you about the estrogen. I am
pre-menopause but a blood test measuring my hormones showed a high level of
estrogen. I see that's another good question for the doctor at Sloan!
Torie, good luck with the chemo. Please keep us up to date with your
progress and please consider me part of your rooting gallery.
God bless and keep you
Barbara
----------
> From: victoria@best.com
> To: mol-cancer@lists.meds.com
> Subject: Re: [MOL] Torrie
> Date: Thursday, January 01, 1998 2:54 PM
>
> Carla,
> So nice of you to ask...here's the latest.....
>
> As you might recall my onc. in the HMO has recommended 4 courses of
> Carboplatin and Taxol, over a period of 12 weeks,...administered every 21
> days on an outpatient basis... I got a second opinion yesterday from the
top
> lung cancer med. onc. at UCSF, and without telling him anything about
what
> was recommended at the HMO, he recommended the same thing. Both doctors
> said it is a tough call, and that a lot of people would recommend not
doing
> anything. But they think these drugs are very effective and that they
will
> improve my chances. I REALLY liked this doctor..he was so easy to talk to
> and spent 2 hours with me, answering all my "stupid" questions. He was
very
> impressed with how well i'd researched the subject, which pleased me...
> He feels that the other more experimental treatments I uncovered through
> Medline searches and whatnot..monoclonal antibodies, transfer factor,
> interleukin 2, adoptive immunotherapy, etc. are too immature in their
> development, at least for lung cancer, to do me any good at this point.
>
> He did recommend a PET scan for me, because he was a little concerned
with
> how they had done the staging of my disease.they sampled only the
enlarged
> mediastinal nodes, and didn't do a formal harvest of the nodes....the
> implications are that there may be lymph nodes that they didn't sample
that
> they should have, in the mediastinum, and a PET scan would identify if
any
> of those are cancerous. If that turns out to be the case, radiation in
that
> area might be indicated...
>
> I asked him about taking estrogen, since I have been taking it for the
last
> couple years...He says some adenocarcinoma tumors have estrogen receptors
> and some don't. He recommends that the HMO do an assay on the tumor
tissue
> to determine this, and if mine has estrogen receptors, then I should
cease
> taking the estrogen. (Arggh...I hope not...)
>
> I go back to the onc. at the HMO on Monday, and will try to get them to
pay
> for the PET scan and the pathology assay...and will schedule the start of
> the chemo. I don't want to wait and get more opinions..if there were
more
> options to choose from I would get more opinions, but I want to get
started
> with chemo. I believe there is a thought that after surgery, tumor cells
> are more active and I'd like to start the chemo while the "tumor load" (I
> think that's the phrase I've heard) is relatively low...
>
> So.............what about you?? Where are you in your decisionmaking
process??
> And, happy new year, in any case!!
>
> Torie
>
>
> At 12:45 AM 12/31/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >Torrie my friend, I am looking for an update on you. I saw where you
> responded to Shirley about the drugs that her mom was taking and said
they
> are the ones recommended for you. I think they are now recommending
these
> for me too. Torrie, what all has brought you to the point whereby you
will
> go through the treatments? I am still researching whether or not this is
> the right approach. Please send me all of the details Torrie. I trust
in
> your determination and the work that you do to help in your own treatment
> decisions.
> >
> >I miss talking with you and hope that now that the holiday madness
season
> is almost over we will have some time to catch up. God Bless you.....
Carla
> ><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
> ><HTML>
> ><HEAD>
> >
> ><META content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 http-equiv=Content-Type>
> ><META content='"MSHTML 4.71.1712.3"' name=GENERATOR>
> ></HEAD>
> ><BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
> ><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Torrie my friend, I am looking for an
> update on
> >you. I saw where you responded to Shirley about the drugs that her
> mom was
> >taking and said they are the ones recommended for you. I think
they are
> >now recommending these for me too. Torrie, what all has brought
you
> to the
> >point whereby you will go through the treatments? I am still
researching
> >whether or not this is the right approach. Please send me all of
the
> >details Torrie. I trust in your determination and the work that
you
> do to
> >help in your own treatment decisions. </FONT></DIV>
> ><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
> ><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>I miss talking with you and hope that
now that
> >the holiday madness season is almost over we will have some time to
catch
> >up. God Bless you.....
> >Carla</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
> >
>
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