How worried should I be

FormerMember over 6 years ago

2 replies
115 subscribers
1625 views

Hi all,

I posted on here in June when my dad was first diagnosed with bowel cancer. He has now had the tumour removed and had a temporary stoma bag fitted. This week we have had the results of the biopsies done on the tumour. They have given it a grading of Dukes C which they have also said is equivalent to T3N1 as the cancer had also spread to 1 out of his 13 lymph nodes. The have said it is moderately to poorly differentiated which I have looked up and found means part of it is fast growing and aggressive, also they are now mentioning that there is evidence of it entering his vascular system. Although when a ct scan was done it showed that it had not metastisied into any other organs. He has been told that he needs 3 months of chemotherapy to reduce the rise of reoccurance. He will have some chemotherapy delivered through a PICC line and some in tablet form.

I am in the unknown and have no reference point does this sound like there can be a positive outcome at the end?

Thanks

Jen

court over 6 years ago

Hi Jen ,

Firstly glad to hear your dad is safely through surgery .

From my perspective there is every reason to be optimistic tinged with realistic . Everything has been removed and hopefully dealt with already . If not then the chemo will hopefully catch any stray cells . Backing up the chemo is the very robust scanning protocol allowing early detection of anything whilst it is manageable . Intervention for recurrent Bowel cancer has many options also . My mum has spent the last ten years being well looked after by skilful hands as a stage 4 patient .

So if it was my relative I would go forward with some sound knowledge that currently there is no evidence to suggest this has not been taken care of . Realistic that they are going to scan him well and act quickly if required.

Also be kind to yourself in the process . It takes time to get your head round the cell type etc . But remind yourself often that currently the evidence shows no spread .

Chemo can be very powerful indeed . After six cycles my mum’s large tumours were no longer visible .

Send him my best wishes and to you also ,

Court

Helpline Number 0808 808 0000

Kareno62 over 6 years ago

Hi Jen

I totally agree with Courts post - you seem to have a very good understanding of the histology results and, while there are no guarantees in life, a good blast of chemo will hopefully get rid of any rogue cancer cells that are still lurking around.

I found a picc line to be so much easier to have the chemo through than my poor ravaged veins and then presumably it will be capecitabine in tablet form?

I was going to ask if your dad was hoping to have his stoma reversed at a later date but I should heed my own usual advice of taking things one stage at a time!

Please let us know how you both get on

Take care

Karen x

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