My mum's treatment may not be working

Hiya Tony

it appears your mother and I seem to have a similar treat plan, I completed 4 cycles of combined chemotherapy and immunotherapy at the end of April, my first scan indicated my cancer had improved, I have continued since April with immunotherapy every 3 weeks, I had my second scan at the end of June and it showed slight growth and it was indicated to me my treatment might be stopped. As you can imagine I was very upset and spoke to my specialist nurse about it, she looked at the scans for me and went through the results over the phone. She said there was slight growth but it is sometimes happens and my tumour was still smaller than it was originally, so in her option there was no need to stop my treatment. To this end my recent treatment went ahead. During my discussion with her she said she would send the ct scan to my MDT for clarification. This was done and it turned out there was nothing to worry about. My advice would be for you or your mum to speak to your specialist nurse and see if the scans can be referred to your MDT for investigation. Sorry for the long explanation I was hoping it would give some clarification to your mum’s situation. Good luck and ask all the questions you need to. If you want to chat or ask me any further questions please message me

Hugs for now

Donna

Hi Donna, thank you so much for your lovely message and I'm so sorry to hear you are going through the same hell as my mum. We hopefully have an appointment with the oncologist tomorrow to find out exactly what's going on. Hoping and praying its nothing to worry about and they continue on with her treatment xx

Hi Toni

Thank you for taking the time to respond at such a worrying time for you. I wish you all the very best for your consultation tomorrow, and if you feel able I would be interested to know how it goes.

fingers crossed for you 

Donna

Hi Toni,

Nothing ever goes smoothly does it! sorry Mum seems to have hit a bump. Please don’t panic, worst case scenario they stop the immunotherapy but it looks like its mums first line treatment so I’m sure there will be others to offer.

I also had Pembrolazumab and did not get any changes until the second scan which as you know is 6 months of treatment. There is so much relief when we get to start treatment we ignore the fact that things don’t show results straight away.

Hopefully everything goes well if you see the oncologist tomorrow, let us know. You asked a question about growth of tumours, there is something called pseudo progression which is usually noticed at the start of immunotherapy treatment, it makes the tumour appear larger but it is actually the uptake of the immunotherapy by the tumour. The oncologist will know exactly what’s what and will have all the answers, fingers crossed for you both

Take care 

Good Morning Toni

just a quick note to say good luck today.

Julie also managed to explain tumour growth better in her message than I did in my waffle, so thank you Julie

Hugs Donna

Good Morning Toni

just a quick note to say good luck today.

Julie also managed to explain tumour growth better in her message than I did in my waffle, so thank you Julie

Hi Julie, thank you so much for your lovely message. I googled pseudo progression and I am keeping everything crossed this is what is it. They also mentioned on the phone she has enlarged lymph glands in her chest but I really hope this is just an infection and not a new cancer. Our meeting is at 1.20 today, saying a little prayer xx

Thank you Donna, this means a lot. Feeling very anxious but trying to stay positive xxx

Hi Toni

i really do understand you feeling very anxious, we’re here for support and if you need to chat later just message.

You and your mum will be in my thoughts today 

Donna

They just called to say they are referring her scans to the Multi Disciplinary team and they said the meeting won't be until next week now which is annoying! They said it could be natural growth or pseudoprogression which would be a good thing so just keeping everything crossed. Thanks again everyone for being so lovely. Feels really nice to have some support xx