Hello, quick overview of our situation. My 39 yr old Husband was diagnosed with Bowel Cancer & secondary liver and stomach lining cancer in Feb this year. The whole Coronavirus situation has made things very difficult for us in many ways but he managed to start chemo in March. We’ve recently had a setback and he developed DVT followed by Ascites. After a CT scan we were told by his oncologist that the chemo hasn’t worked after 3 sessions and that the cancer is aggressive and spreading further. He now plans to try a new chemo drug once Husband has regained enough reserves to deal with the side effects. I asked Dr if he could be considered for trials and I was told that all trials are currently on hold due to covid19! I’m in shock, has anybody else experienced this? I’ve had a look online to see if there is a petition happening to get all clinical trials back up and running again but I can’t find anything? Would love to connect with others in a current situation. Many thanks.
Hi
Really sorry to hear about your husband . My mum has been a stage 4 bowel cancer patient for 11 years . Bowel cancer is fortunate enough to have a few lines of treatment . Did you have a particular trial he was interested in as some are phase one and very early stages and a limited objective ? Second line chemo can work well for some people . Hopefully that would give the clinical trials time to get back up and running again . There has been some movement in the NHS of late making things safer to proceed so hopefully the trials will follow suit .
The other avenue you might like to explore if you have not already is to find out if your husband is MSI or MSS . If he is MSI patients in America are having a good response to immunotherapy to the point it has become first line treatment . It’s not through here yet but I think it’s being reviewed by the NICE committee. But might be good to know for the future .
Hopefully the pharmaceutical companies will be applying pressure to restart trials too . If you know a bit more about his cell type it would help you look at avenues that have Some benefit.
Did his oncologist mention the name of the chemo he/ she hoped to use next ?
You might also like to link in with Bowel cancer Uk . They have a stage 4 forum which might help you get more information regarding your husband’s situation and the different approaches to treatment .
Take care ,
Court
Helpline Number 0808 808 0000
Hope you get more information but hopefully the second line chemo will be better for him . You have time to get all the details you require and I would think the trials will want to get going again soon . Keep a wee eye on immunotherapy as it’s got some good outcomes .
It took two years of chemo and a few bumps along the way to get my mum to a stable point . Remember he can always get a second opinion too .
take care ,
Court
Helpline Number 0808 808 0000
