Any one with any advice!

FormerMember over 5 years ago

1 reply
124 subscribers
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Hi everyone!!

Sorry this is all very new to me, we found out of recent that my dad has bowel cancer in one of the screening they offer now (very lucky. I know)

He has had the tumour taken out and also another part taken away due to finding crones and is left with a bag for the time being. We have had the results and it was stage three, we just got it out in time (again very lucky) the CT Showed before the op that it hasn’t spread anywhere. however they did say out of 17 lymph nodes the cancer cells is in 5 when they did the op and that he will need chemo but not too sure for how long yet.

what does this mean for survival rates?? Is it normal to go to your lymph nodes?? And what’s the difference between cancer cells and just having cancer??

court over 5 years ago

Hi ,

Welcome to the forum . Delighted to hear your dad is safely through the operation .

We do see lymph node involvement quite a lot here . The thing to remember is that they are close to the tumour and removed . They have not reached any distant organ and chemo is still only belts and braces . The chemo can be very powerful . My mum relied on it to reduce her primary tumour and spread and it was remarkable to see it shrink off the scan with only six cycles.

As long as it had not spread he is still in a favourable position. Obviously the less involvement the better but it is still contained in close proximity to the primary tumour and was operable . It is all relative anyway as being chemo responsive his equally important in mopping up any stray cells .

Lymph node involvement does mean some of the cancer has moved into his nodes so there is no real difference . The game changer is being operable . It is also very , very individual. My mum went from inoperable to operable twice with chemo so there is every reason to be hopeful for a good outcome . Lymph node involvement is only one prognostic factor they take other things into account as well .

Take care ,

Court

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