Concurrent chemoradiation

Hi Solo19

So very sorry that you have cause to be on here.

The positive is that they have caught the cancer early,

Chemoradiation is a non invasive treatment during which you have both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.  More often than not, the chemo may start a few weeks earlier than the radiotherapy; this is for the chemo to start to shrink the cancer so that the radiotherapy has a smaller target to treat.

On the days when you have to have both on the same day (not at the same time!). you will have the radiotherapy  ahead of the chemo.  This is because the chemo can make some people feeling a bit sickly and they don't want you throwing up during the radiotherapy treatment!

Everyone reacts differently, so the side effects are different for everyone, Having said that, depending on how many sessions of radiotherapy are prescribed, most people do experience tiredness.

From personal experience I can say that chemoradiation is highly effective and, although quite tough to get through, is very much doable.  

I hope this helps a bit.

Kegsy x

Hi Kegys,

thank you for your reply and all the information, it has helped massively as I didn’t have a clue what to expect x

Hello Solo19, 

I'm not familiar with chemoradiation as I had a right pneumonectomy back in 2014 and have not looked back since. After the operation when the lung could be forensically examined I was confirmed as having stage T2aN1M0.

All I can say from my own experience (and with respect for Kegsy's experience and comments) is that I would not dismiss surgery if this is an option. 

I wish you all the best whatever route you decide to take.

Derek.

Hi Derek, i’m very pleased to hear your doing well, and thank you for your reply, the idea of a Pneumonectomy took a lot of getting used to as it absolutely terrifies me, but I’m finally getting there and now they have come up chemoradiation, so I’m very confused, two hospitals were involved in my MDT meeting, I’ve meet the thoracic surgeon at the first hospital and had all the tests for the Pneumonectomy, and I have an appointment with a clinical oncologist at the 2nd hospital on Monday, it’s a lot to get my head around 

I'm sorry you have this dilemma and are struggling to make a choice. Hopefully when you see the oncologist on Monday things will be clearer and you'll be more comfortable to make your decision on which type of treatment you would like.

In the meantime I don't know if you've done any research but there is some excellent information on chemoradiotherapy published by reliable sources including Macmillan, Cancer Research UK, NHS and NICE. If you haven't and feel you would benefit from this I've put links to the websites below (assuming Macmillan allow these to be posted). Please be careful to avoid other possible information sources online as many are out of date or potentially unreliable.

The decision on treatment options is of course entirely yours based on what you are comfortable and confident with and the websites below do specifically refer to surgery when discussing possible chemoradiation treatment. 

If you have any specific questions at all regarding surgery feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer.

All the best,

Derek.

https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/treatments-and-drugs/chemoradiation-for-lung-cancer

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/lung-cancer/treatment/chemoradiotherapy/having-chemoradiotherapy

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lung-cancer/treatment/

https://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/into-practice/measuring-the-use-of-nice-guidance/impact-of-our-guidance/niceimpact-lung-cancer/ch4-treatment-for-lung-cancer

Thank you, those websites will be a massive help, I will certainly have a look at them 

I met the clinician oncologist today, and it was such a lot to take in, if I go down the chemoradiation route I will have paliltaxel and Carboplatin along with nivolumab and 30-33 radiotherapy sessions, I also meet a different thoracic  surgeon on Thursday to discuss surgery and wether I should have the same drugs pre or post surgery, does anyone have any experience of those treatment/drug combinations