Stage 3 rectal cancer

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Diagnosed in August 22 following a routine colonoscopy but had no symptoms whatsoever. Asked the oncologist to give me the maximum dosage of radiotherapy and chemotherapy over a 6 week period .want to try and avoid surgery which is why I wanted max radiotherapy. Breezed through that with no side effects whatsoever and now waiting for scans in Feb. Has anyone else managed to avoid surgery. It’s jumped over to 2 lymph nodes but cancer still localised

Kareno62 over 2 years ago

Hi claimsneg . There are people who have had a total response after chemoradiotherapy and are still cancer free 5 years later but there are also people who have had a total response and then had a reoccurence within a year and had to go down the surgery route at that point. Devon2023 has recently posted about a similar situation however I don’t think you would fit the criteria for papillon with the signs of affected lymph nodes?

New to the group

The gold standard treatment is surgery to remove the tumour, affected lymph nodes and surrounding area to check if there is any extra vascular involvement for example. Is it the operation that you want to avoid or the chance of a stoma?

Take care

Karen x

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claimsneg over 2 years ago in reply to Kareno62

Thanks Karen. I would like to avoid both although the surgeon did say a stoma would be necessary in the event of surgery x