Hi
I have just been diagnosed with colon cancer and have been offered the FOXTROT 3 trial. I just don't know what to do
Has anyone got any advicebor experience that they would share.
I'm terrified
Good Afternoon M20
I am Brian, one of the Community Champions here at Macmillan. I have just noticed your post has gone unanswered. I can't answer it myself as I have a different cancer, however by me responding it will be "bumped up" to the top of the group and hopefully be seen and answered by other members of the Bowel cancer group.
I don't know anything about the trial you have been offered but I have been on a couple of trials (not for cancer) and the good thing I found out was the attention you got from the medical team making sure all was well. I never found out if I had the trial medication or the placebo.
I wish you well with your ongoing treatment - trial or not.
Best wishes - Brian.
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Hammo Duran85 Hi M20 I’ve tagged in a couple of people who took part in the trial although I don’t know if they’re still active on the board?
I believe LG1960 has been offered the Foxtrot 2 trial so may be able to offer some advice. Foxtrot 1 trialled giving chemo before surgery rather than after and was found to be beneficial to the patient so has been introduced as the new standard practice. It appears that foxtrot 3 is trialling 3 chemo drugs rather than the usual 2 to see if they are more beneficial in reducing the size of the tumour and reducing the chance if a reoccurrence.
I totally understand that it’s a tough decision. You obviously want to give yourself the best treatment available. I took part in a trial back in 2016 and the 2 factors that helped me decide were that, although the oncologist can’t advise you what to do, she did say that if I was her sister then she’d advise me to take everything offered. The second thing was that the chemos being used were established drugs that were already being used for stage 4 patients - not random drugs that had only been tested on mice!
Chemo is tough and the side effects can vary from person to person. If you want to feel that you might be contributing to future improvements then you could give it a go or you could just go with the standard treatment - the trial that I took part in eventually came out as having no beneficial effect which was a bit disappointing but the normal chemo seems to have done the trick and I’m currently ‘no evidence of disease).
I hope you’re able to come to a decision that you’re happy with and dont forget that the support desk is available on the number below if you want to chat to someone
Take care
Karen x
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