When I have a doctors say in a letter that he suspect l have a persistent anal cancer and he calls the cancer an anal squamous cell ca (t4). Am l a dead man walking
Hi Paul, sorry to hear about what I assume is a recent diagnosis? I was diagnosed in February 2021 with Stage 4 anal cancer. It’s spread to lymph nodes and my liver. I had no symptoms whatsoever other than fatigue but I did exercise excessively. In April iI started chemo and possibly immunotherapy (I’m on a trial so I could just be on chemo and a placebo) I had a partial response at my first scan and things look stable at my second one. I’m clinging onto the fact that it doesn’t seem to be an aggressive cancer. So I’m not sure what you mean when you say your Dr mentioned the word ‘persistent’? I also feel that as it’s a rare cancer the statistics aren’t as conclusive as with some other cancers and data for stage 4 patients is limited. I guess there are many factors that contribute to how people deal with treatment and how there body responds. I felt exactly as you said ‘like a dead man (woman in my case) walking but realise having these feeling are normal and part of the process. I think you’ve just got to enjoy life day by day as best you can and not worry about the statistics. I also feel that Drs always err on the side of caution and their letters are very cold and clinical. I found that hard to deal with too.
