Hello everyone.
I was diagnosed with Rectal cancer in February this year and luckily I had no spread elsewhere. I had 5 weeks radiotherapy and chemotherapy and following my treatment another MRI and CT scan. The MRI showed that I had a ‘total response’ to the treatment but they wanted another Sigmoidoscopy to be sure. I had that a couple of weeks ago and the biopsies taken show no evidence of cancer. I’ve now been told I don’t need surgery at the moment but I’ve been put on a clinical trial called Watch and Wait which involves me having an MRI and a sigmoidoscopy every 4 months for 2 years then every 6 months until 5 years has passed. If at any point they find changes it will be surgery straight away. Apparently this has the same long term outlook as having surgery would. Has anyone else had this? I was dreading surgery but in some ways I’m not sure about leaving the area untouched. Would they be able to tell if Lymph nodes had been involved and would the treatment have zapped them too if so? I know I should have asked the doctor but I was too stunned that I didn’t need surgery at the time! Thank you!
