Post Flot scan

Hi Hugh

Well your brother is doing very well indeed by the sounds of things. Yes the chemo can kill ANY cancerous cells that are present. It sounds as though the main tumour is probably reducing anyway due to his improved eating. I'm experiencing the same things so am hopeful of mine going too! Unfortunately the lack of taste and appetite has resulted in a weight loss so I'll need to address that soon!

Good luck to you both  

Anthony 

Hi Bob thanks for reply!

First 6 days or so after the chemo he is the same tastes puts him of his food to the point he isn't eating really and the chemo seriously dehydrates him but then the following 5 /6 days before the next round the tast comes back and he gets back to almost normal where he uses this to eat and drink as much as he can to build him up and although the 1st week he looses a bit he more than makes up for it the 2nd week. The biggest thing he has done to help himself was on the bad days he was forcing a shake down in the morning before medication it lines the stomach and gives calory hit I know they ain't great but it's only a temporary hit. By doing it this way he started of at 17.1 St is now 17.4 St and that's all pre op chemo done! Good luck to you aswell bob hope everything goes well :)

I'm post oesophagectomy, with Operation in Feb 2023, finishing post op chemo and radiotherapy in Sept 2023. 

My understanding is that the surgery is performed on the basis of the staging information before first round of FLOT so they will remove the same amount of tissue regardless of how much the tumour has shrink by chemo or radiotherapy which I believe is the safest approach to prevent recurrence.  

Having said that, my surgeon commented, "I managed to save more of the stomach than I expected to be able to"

Thank you for reply 

And i appreciate you sharing your story.

When you had your pet scan post chemo and pre operation was there any significant changes I.e spread or reduction? As we are hoping the chemo has nullified tye lymph nodes which were around the tumour 

Thank you

Hugh

Hi Hugh, apologies for delay in replying. I can't seem to get my head around the degisn of the forum and notifications!

They didn't think the FLOT reduced the tumour but since swallowing and coughing improved I knew it must have - after surgery it was recorded as 7cm.  Staging originally had it as T4N1M0 if I remember, 12cm. They removed 71 lymph nodes and found 7 with cancerous cells. I wasn't told if the one known had reduced or not but I imagine it had I'm line with other reduction. I have no idea why the scans, and laproscopy didnt show reduction.

My attitude towards chemo was short term pain for long term gain - I wanted as much as they were willing to give me regardless of effects. Although they did reduce it when I had breathing problems. Good luck, I hope all goes well.

Thanks for the information :)

We are also in a place where we don't know anything regarding the progress or reduction and the scans have been done all we are hoping is the surgery goes ahead as we are still waiting to hear.

Thanks for replying