Rectal cancer watch and wait

Thanks so much Process

Right so after an abnormal area showing on the prostate in my last MRI of the pelvis and  rectum,  they investigated my prostate for possible cancer.

Very fortunately, I have just heard that my prostate is 'entirely normal' on the subsequent MRI of the prostate and together with a low PSA result of 0.72 I don't require any treatment or further surveillance of the prostate.

So five and a half years after diagnosis with a stage 3 colorectal cancer I am now discharged as a colorectal cancer patient and there are no suspicions of prostate cancer either.

Watch and wait was an absolutely fantastic option for me and I hope these threads and my profile history give anyone who is considering watch and wait a flavour of what it can be like as a patient.

My wife is dragging me off to a folk dancing thing tonight and after that we are on holiday to Romania! 

I'm delighted to have these opportunities and wish everyone here the very best luck with your treatment journeys.

All best wishes,

Jogey

Fantastic news Jogey. So very pleased for you.  Enjoy all the opportunities on offer to you. 

Take care,

Susie64

Thanks so much Susie64  I really appreciate it.

Have a wonderful day.

Jogey

Hi Jogey.

Im very happy for your response, how big was your tuma, dose the size matter in shrinkage for clinical response.

Warm regars

Hi Emcee,

That is a good result, did you require a TEMS procedure for the remaining 4.5mm 

warm regards

Hi thassos 

Tumour was 2.9 cm in length and was T3A, N1 M0,

As regards whether this very good outcome (i.e  the tumour disappearing completely on a long term basis in response to radiation and chemo) is linked to the size of the tumour, in order to get a reliable reply, you are probably best off asking your clinical team as I don't wish to potentially mislead you with a quick google based reply :)

Very best wishes,

Jogey

Thanks Jogey,

warm regards

Hi Jogey- Thank you

Did you have 5 weeks Radiotherapy combined with chemo, two weeks off then 18 weeks chemo, this is my treatment plan, is this similar to yours.

How did you react to the chemo/radio, were there any horrible side affects, i realise these are bespoke to the individual,

At what stage / time did they see the tuma had a CCR.

Warm regards

Hi thassos ,

As I was diagnosed over five years ago, the standard treatment was different from now.

I had 5 weeks radiotherapy (with chemo tablets at the same time to help the radiotherapy work better)

I was then offered watch and wait as there had been a complete clinical response and I accepted this.

The NHS standard at the time (2019) was not to have any chemo for watch and wait patients if there had not been any recurrence, but I requested to have it as I felt that there might be a survival benefit in clearing up stray cancer cells.
I had also been following developments in the US where chemo was sometimes prescribed for rectal cancer watch and wait patients.

My NHS oncologist researched this and said there was new research that chemo might provide a survival benefit so he agreed to do it for me. He said that research showed that 3 months chemo had just as good an effect as 6 months so I had 3 months chemotherapy. So I had chemo a few months after I had had the complete response to radiotherapy.

I was very fortunate that I had no side effects from the chemotherapy and obviously the fact that I only had 3 months was helpful for this.

My NHS oncologist told me a year or two later that he was very pleased that I did have the chemo (presumably because ongoing research had confirmed it had a survival benefit). 

I was in fact the very first rectal cancer watch and wait patient at my NHS hospital to ever have chemo after a clinically complete response to radiation without any recurrence having previously happened.

Best wishes,

Jogey