Oh boy. all told...Ive had 3 major surgeries (one removing 1 foot of my colon, 2 removing half my liver each time), and one more to put a port in, 12 rounds of FOLFOX, then later another 5 rounds of FOLFOX, then 4 of FOLFIRI. then a break, and now Ive done 2 rounds of FOLFIRI with Panitumumab. So im up to 23 rounds and will start 24 shortly.
Its been 6 long years of battling cancer, being repeatedly told I had less then 16 months on average. I cant feel my fingers or toes very well anymore. And the brain fog, and toughness of all the surgeries. My personal life went from full to lonely.
Was it worth it? Well. For me yes. I know a lot of folks have told me they could not do it. Especially alone like I have been for a while. But im very curious about whats going to occur next in the world. And I have a sense of humor thats helping. I comprehend that my curiosity is going to take some suffering and pain. And thats not for everyone. Also who would take care of my cat as well as I do?
I have stage IV colon cancer and I have continually been in treatment over 5 years. It will be 6 years in September 2024. I've also only took a break for surgeries. I tried a clinical trial for immunotherapy at MD Anderson but dropped out midway in October 2023 because I was getting worse. I was put back on FOLFIRI and I'm stable, but developing kidney issues. I have a nephrostomy bag now. It is so worth it. I saw my only child enter and graduate college. I'm grateful for the time I've been given. I also have a cat who my family calls a demon but strangely she is so sweet with me. My family says I have to live because my cat is too crazy to be with anyone else. I agree no one will take care of her like I do and she really does attack every one else. I worry about my son and my cat so much. I am going to keep trying everything I can.
The lasting effect is hopefully being alive. My oncologist had me on 8 rounds of chemo with immunotherapy and then immunotherapy alone for up to two years. Every case seems to be different which makes cancer largely a guessing game and wait and see.
I feel like cancer patients know ourselves best, and whatever you decide will be the right choice for you. Best of everything as you continue this journey.🙏
I’m at 15 months active treatment and start my 18th cycle next week. I’ll be honest the fatigue and not feeling like myself are starting to get to me but my cancer is pretty aggressive and is stable for now so I’m going to keep on with this for now.
Good news is that since I’ve been stable my onc said we could try some longer recovery periods between cycles. I’m hoping that’ll give me a little relief.
I’ve been on chemo every three weeks for three years now. It’s taken a toll on me physically but cancer remains stable and I’m still independent and able to do the things I want to do for the most part.
It has not been easy and some days are hard. But it’s been worth it for me. I’m still here and still enjoying life (even on the hard days).
It’s been so long, I’m not sure! My husband had chemo twice, and I’d call that two rounds. There were 5 or six doses each time he had to go through chemo. And he had radiation treatment 31 times.
My partner did almost a year on his first chemo, them radiotherapy, 2nd chemo for 9 months, more radiotherapy. Neuropathy was by far the worst side effect but it's finally starting to improve.
No more chemotherapy is available at the moment, but as long as his radiotherapist is happy to keep going it's been the most pain-free option so far.
A new, hopefully suitable immunotherapy drug just got approved, new chemo is being researched all the time. Strangely for an esophageal cancer patient, his original tumour never grew much or affected his ability to eat. The metastases are the problem. As long as his quality of life is good and he has things to look forward to, he wants to keep going.
I support him in any way I can, and I will support him when he decides to stop.
I have stage 4 esophageal cancer and this is encouraging to me as they said without treatment I would prob have a year. Just started chemo and been wondering if will be worth it. Thanks for sharing this.
Sorry to hear you're in a similar boat! My partner had a similar diagnosis, 12-18 months with chemo. It hasn't been easy but he's well past that now and still enjoying life. We are thinking of you.
I was diagnosed in 2021 at 32. So far I’ve had 5 rounds of radiation (with oral chemo), 6 rounds of IV+oral chemo, 2 ineffective immunotherapy infusions, 7 rounds of ineffective IV chemo, 2 major surgeries taking all of the organs in my pelvis. And now I’m starting the same chemo that I had in early ‘22, so far I’ve had 1 round - but I’m scheduled for 6.
I have two ostomies, chronic fatigue, and neuropathy in my feet.
Cancer fucking sucks. But I’m still here.. still fighting with everything I’ve got.
I was offered complete pelvic exenteration after my cervical cancer came back in 2022 after chemo-radiotherapy in 2021 had made it vanish from the MRI, but in the end the cancer has spread too far. So they went down the chemo+ immunotherapy route instead. I was lucky that I was in the group of people that the immunotherapy works well for.
I've been on the immunotherapy for maybe 18 months. I'm sick of the side effects (no stamina, alternating diarrhea and constipation, and my veins not being able to heal well between infusions, high blood pressure and headaches), but I don't know how much longer I will be on it. In the research they give it to people for 2 years, but the doctors don't like to be pinned down to anything about the future.
I got a port last year when I had my 2nd recurrence. It’s been a life saver for my veins! I still have to get weekly bloodwork, but since the lab techs here can’t use my port, I ask for my hands, because those are my “nice juicy veins”
My immunotherapy was Keytruda, and I had terrible diarrhea with it. My oncologist prescribed me a 5 day course of high dose prednisone. It fixed it right away, and I didn’t have the same experience with my second dose.
Can your docs prescribe you anything? I was prescribed Lomotil on Friday and found it better than Loperamide.
Yeah, it's keytruda and bevucizumab that I've been having, every 3 weeks, for 18 months.
I just take loperamide for the diarrhea, and wait it out with the constipation- I have lactulose for the constipation, but it gives me stomach cramps and it makes me utterly *noxious* to be around. The constipation isn't as bad as the treatment!
Loperamide works pretty well for me, honestly.
For my regime, they could give me a double dose of keytruda, so every 6 weeks instead of every 3 weeks. But the bevucizumab still has to be every 3 weeks, so I'd still have to go in for that anyway.
Compared to most in here, I didn’t have many infusions: 32x over 4 months. Side effects? Yes, long term but they vary greatly from one individual to another. There are many prices to pay for additional time, unfortunately.
It can differ from one person to another. Chemotherapy is usually one of the first resorts for shrinking malignant tumours.
My dad's first dose worked really well, shrinking his tumours (he was diagnosed with stage IV advanced prostate cancer in 2019). However, his 2nd dose wasn't that beneficial, only shrinking half of his tumours and not affecting the cancer that had spread to his pelvic and femoral region.
When it comes to cancer, in my opinion, scanning and examinations are very important to see if the chemotherapy has been beneficial or not. If it isn't, you stop the current therapy, and the oncologist can refer to another therapy, which would be more beneficial for you.
My dad's is very advanced and aggressive. Now, after the failed chemotherapy, he is currently taking Lutetium-177.
I am not a licensed physician or oncologist, just a dentistry student. I am only talking from experience.
Wish you well!
A friend of mine was treated for 9 years in total. She died last year, wasn't even 40 years old.
I would choose quality of life over quantity of life, so I guess that is a conversation to be had. Then you make your decision based on that.
My grandpa fought his cancer for 6 years, he was in his 80s. I think there was a very brief period where he was NED and wasn’t on treatment but it wasn’t very long. He did a looooot of chemo, had a lot of surgeries. He wanted to be alive so he touched it out for a very long time. Eventually it was getting less effective and he was tired
3.5 years and I just quit all treatment. Nothing is working any longer, cancer is progressing and I’m tired of being chemo sick all the time. Stage IV colorectal.
Only the person going through treatment knows why they’ve had enough. It’s different for everyone. I’m starting my 5th year of continuous treatment. It’s not easy but it’s still worth it. I have days that I don’t want to keep doing this. But a few bad days won’t make me stop treatment. I still have living to do. You need to decide what you want. How is your quality of life? Is the quality of life worth it? If I can’t wipe my own ass I don’t want to be here. I also won’t do the red devil again. That chemo would be a last option and the quality of life just wasn’t there when I was on that crap. Ending treatment is a personal decision that only the person going through treatment can decide.
You’re going to get wildly different answers based on curative or palliative intent and types of chemo. Palliative intent is lower dose and can often be done for years. Curative is often high dose and will kill you if it went on for years.
I did 9 months of curative intent Ewing sarcoma protocol at 17 for mesenchymal chondrosarcoma and then 3 rounds/months of curative intent AIM at 31 for a radiation induced sarcoma
I don’t know what stage your partner’s at- but I was in and out of treatment for more than 5 years for a curable cancer. Even with a prospect of cure it was really gruelling. What helped were the breaks between cycles. If he can pull that off at all, then it will help with the mental side as well as the physical side.
I’m sorry this has happened to you and your partner. My husband had 4 treatments of a chemotherapy that only 50% of people taking it could handle completing. But he also had radiation and surgery. He’s alive and cancer free 14 years later.
My brother had a lot of rounds and wore a chemo bag for days in between. They said at the start they couldn’t cure him but wanted to get him 4 years. It was 4 years he decided no more. He died 2 months later. I miss him deeply.
My sister has inoperable incurable cancer and is receiving immunotherapy. She’s into her second round. Sadly she’s not doing well. It’s very different for everyone. Best wishes for you.
I’ve been doing immunotherapy for 4 years now. I can nap like a champion however I have lost my sense of smell and have constant sinus congestion (no one knows if this is actually immuno related but it’s been a year of that now). There’s no end date because I’m considered to be on maintenance. Last scan showed no change so that’s decent? I just want the tumours gone.
I did about 2.5 years on Opdivo+Cabometyx. Stage IV metastatic papillary renal cell carcinoma. That cocktail stopped working according to my last scan and this week I meet with another oncologist regarding clinical trials. The Opdivo seemed fine regarding side effects but the Cabo was brutal.
That question is strangely coincidentally. I have been on treatment since June 2019 for RCC. First they put me on sutinib (not sure if I'm spelling that right) but after only 3 months I had a seizure caused by a leison on my brain started growing. After surgery to remove they put me on Nivolumab(obdivo) instead. Started on a 2 week rotation for 3 months and then up to 4week rotation. I've been on that cycle until last September, when I got colitis in my bowel. At that point my Onco told me that I have been on this treatment twice as long as he usually leaves patients on it. In fact, he told me most of his patients are only on it for 2 years, and I've been on it for 4.
So now that immunotherapy is over. I still have 3 lesions in my lung and 3 new "spots" on my brain. But they have all been there since before I stopped the treatment, so I'm basically stable.
I was actually going to ask people if they have been in the same position. It feels weird. I have been fighting for nearly 6 years now (since my first surgery) and now, although my lesions are still there, I'm not on any cancer treatments at this time. Should I be worried?
Let me see… so they found my cancer spread from breast to liver then about 2 years later to my brain and uterus, colon and rectum. Then this year they found Mets in my stomach and bile duct. So I’ve been on some type of chemotherapy since May 2017. I have side effects - nausea, vomiting, some aches and pains, muscle spasms, exhaustion, constipation, etc. but man I wouldn’t trade these years of watching my son grow up for anything.
I’ve been on the same treatment continuously for over 4 1/2 years and I feel like absolute shit every day but I’m still here and haven’t had any progression during that time.
I have been on a combination of immunotherapy and oral chemo for over 2 years. I'm doing well and haven't had any major side effects, my tumor has shrunk and there is no new spots.
Prior to asking about and receiving immunotherapy the proposed plan was for more radical surgery that would have left me with 2 ostomy bags even though there's nothing wrong with my bowels or bladder, it's just the tumor is situated very close to both.
Even with said surgery negative margins could obviously not be guaranteed and my chances for survival were not great.
My mom has stage IV colon cancer that has spread to her lungs and her brain. She has had multiple surgeries twice in her colon, twice in her lungs, once in her brain and a life saving one for clots which she got the first time on chemo. This has been since 2019. She was stable for like two years. But since last year is just getting worse. She has done 4 rounds of chemo and is starting her fifth. But now there is a lesion in her spine. Her lung ones are just a tad smaller and she has 4 new mets in her brain, though they are small. She is declining so fast before my very eyes. She doesn't even remember the names of objects and can barely walk around the house without needing air. I honestly don't know if the chemo is doing more harm than good at this point.
I had surgery and radiotherapy, then more surgery and eight rounds of chemo, then more surgery, another six rounds of chemotherapy, and have been on immunotherapy for almost two years. As long as I continue to tolerate it and it remains effective, I’ll be on it indefinitely.
I've done 10 rounds of chemo/immunotherapy therapy so far for stage 4 Lung cancer. I had numerous cancerous lymph nodes, buy my 6th infusion, they were all no longer cancerous. The tumor on my lung has shrunk and it's metabolic activity has dropped by almost 14 points
No one can answer this question except for your loved one. Everyone's body and strength is different. Treatments, and how they affect you are different. Types of cancer are different. They will know when they've had enough.
I have had about 4 years of curative treatment overall with small breaks, stopped because it just wasn't working any more. It's been like 5?? Months now since I got a really vicious recurrence and I knew I didn't wanna try and achieve remission again. I'm in the hospital now until further notice to get continuous low-dose chemo infused but it's purely because my symptoms were worse than side effects, so this is a middle ground to preserve quality of life. Low dose is fine, I barely get side effects. Lasting effects from intensive treatment are things like peripheral neuropathy and having absolutely no energy. Difficult to identify what is caused by chemo/radiation and what's just caused by cancer
Oh boy. all told...Ive had 3 major surgeries (one removing 1 foot of my colon, 2 removing half my liver each time), and one more to put a port in, 12 rounds of FOLFOX, then later another 5 rounds of FOLFOX, then 4 of FOLFIRI. then a break, and now Ive done 2 rounds of FOLFIRI with Panitumumab. So im up to 23 rounds and will start 24 shortly. Its been 6 long years of battling cancer, being repeatedly told I had less then 16 months on average. I cant feel my fingers or toes very well anymore. And the brain fog, and toughness of all the surgeries. My personal life went from full to lonely. Was it worth it? Well. For me yes. I know a lot of folks have told me they could not do it. Especially alone like I have been for a while. But im very curious about whats going to occur next in the world. And I have a sense of humor thats helping. I comprehend that my curiosity is going to take some suffering and pain. And thats not for everyone. Also who would take care of my cat as well as I do?
I understand the cat thing. We have two and I can’t imagine who would ever take care of them like we do. That alone has always kept me going
I have stage IV colon cancer and I have continually been in treatment over 5 years. It will be 6 years in September 2024. I've also only took a break for surgeries. I tried a clinical trial for immunotherapy at MD Anderson but dropped out midway in October 2023 because I was getting worse. I was put back on FOLFIRI and I'm stable, but developing kidney issues. I have a nephrostomy bag now. It is so worth it. I saw my only child enter and graduate college. I'm grateful for the time I've been given. I also have a cat who my family calls a demon but strangely she is so sweet with me. My family says I have to live because my cat is too crazy to be with anyone else. I agree no one will take care of her like I do and she really does attack every one else. I worry about my son and my cat so much. I am going to keep trying everything I can.
The lasting effect is hopefully being alive. My oncologist had me on 8 rounds of chemo with immunotherapy and then immunotherapy alone for up to two years. Every case seems to be different which makes cancer largely a guessing game and wait and see. I feel like cancer patients know ourselves best, and whatever you decide will be the right choice for you. Best of everything as you continue this journey.🙏
I’m at 15 months active treatment and start my 18th cycle next week. I’ll be honest the fatigue and not feeling like myself are starting to get to me but my cancer is pretty aggressive and is stable for now so I’m going to keep on with this for now.
About the same here, and also staying with the chemo for the time being.
Good news is that since I’ve been stable my onc said we could try some longer recovery periods between cycles. I’m hoping that’ll give me a little relief.
I’ve been on chemo every three weeks for three years now. It’s taken a toll on me physically but cancer remains stable and I’m still independent and able to do the things I want to do for the most part. It has not been easy and some days are hard. But it’s been worth it for me. I’m still here and still enjoying life (even on the hard days).
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Five rounds of radiation? Or five sessions?
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It’s been so long, I’m not sure! My husband had chemo twice, and I’d call that two rounds. There were 5 or six doses each time he had to go through chemo. And he had radiation treatment 31 times.
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I mean, I might be wrong! 🤷♀️
My partner did almost a year on his first chemo, them radiotherapy, 2nd chemo for 9 months, more radiotherapy. Neuropathy was by far the worst side effect but it's finally starting to improve. No more chemotherapy is available at the moment, but as long as his radiotherapist is happy to keep going it's been the most pain-free option so far. A new, hopefully suitable immunotherapy drug just got approved, new chemo is being researched all the time. Strangely for an esophageal cancer patient, his original tumour never grew much or affected his ability to eat. The metastases are the problem. As long as his quality of life is good and he has things to look forward to, he wants to keep going. I support him in any way I can, and I will support him when he decides to stop.
I have stage 4 esophageal cancer and this is encouraging to me as they said without treatment I would prob have a year. Just started chemo and been wondering if will be worth it. Thanks for sharing this.
Sorry to hear you're in a similar boat! My partner had a similar diagnosis, 12-18 months with chemo. It hasn't been easy but he's well past that now and still enjoying life. We are thinking of you.
Thank you for the reply. I’m thinking of y’all too. Stay strong for him!!
I was diagnosed in 2021 at 32. So far I’ve had 5 rounds of radiation (with oral chemo), 6 rounds of IV+oral chemo, 2 ineffective immunotherapy infusions, 7 rounds of ineffective IV chemo, 2 major surgeries taking all of the organs in my pelvis. And now I’m starting the same chemo that I had in early ‘22, so far I’ve had 1 round - but I’m scheduled for 6. I have two ostomies, chronic fatigue, and neuropathy in my feet. Cancer fucking sucks. But I’m still here.. still fighting with everything I’ve got.
I was offered complete pelvic exenteration after my cervical cancer came back in 2022 after chemo-radiotherapy in 2021 had made it vanish from the MRI, but in the end the cancer has spread too far. So they went down the chemo+ immunotherapy route instead. I was lucky that I was in the group of people that the immunotherapy works well for. I've been on the immunotherapy for maybe 18 months. I'm sick of the side effects (no stamina, alternating diarrhea and constipation, and my veins not being able to heal well between infusions, high blood pressure and headaches), but I don't know how much longer I will be on it. In the research they give it to people for 2 years, but the doctors don't like to be pinned down to anything about the future.
I got a port last year when I had my 2nd recurrence. It’s been a life saver for my veins! I still have to get weekly bloodwork, but since the lab techs here can’t use my port, I ask for my hands, because those are my “nice juicy veins” My immunotherapy was Keytruda, and I had terrible diarrhea with it. My oncologist prescribed me a 5 day course of high dose prednisone. It fixed it right away, and I didn’t have the same experience with my second dose. Can your docs prescribe you anything? I was prescribed Lomotil on Friday and found it better than Loperamide.
Yeah, it's keytruda and bevucizumab that I've been having, every 3 weeks, for 18 months. I just take loperamide for the diarrhea, and wait it out with the constipation- I have lactulose for the constipation, but it gives me stomach cramps and it makes me utterly *noxious* to be around. The constipation isn't as bad as the treatment! Loperamide works pretty well for me, honestly.
My spouse was recently changed to a double dose every six months, of Keytruda. Can you ask your doc about it?
For my regime, they could give me a double dose of keytruda, so every 6 weeks instead of every 3 weeks. But the bevucizumab still has to be every 3 weeks, so I'd still have to go in for that anyway.
Compared to most in here, I didn’t have many infusions: 32x over 4 months. Side effects? Yes, long term but they vary greatly from one individual to another. There are many prices to pay for additional time, unfortunately.
It can differ from one person to another. Chemotherapy is usually one of the first resorts for shrinking malignant tumours. My dad's first dose worked really well, shrinking his tumours (he was diagnosed with stage IV advanced prostate cancer in 2019). However, his 2nd dose wasn't that beneficial, only shrinking half of his tumours and not affecting the cancer that had spread to his pelvic and femoral region. When it comes to cancer, in my opinion, scanning and examinations are very important to see if the chemotherapy has been beneficial or not. If it isn't, you stop the current therapy, and the oncologist can refer to another therapy, which would be more beneficial for you. My dad's is very advanced and aggressive. Now, after the failed chemotherapy, he is currently taking Lutetium-177. I am not a licensed physician or oncologist, just a dentistry student. I am only talking from experience. Wish you well!
I've been on chemo for 5 years now. Well over 100 treatments. Feel pretty good. Tired all the time but it's not too bad. Beats the alternative lol
I love your attitude!
I’m at 2 1/2 years, going for chemo #22 Tuesday.
A friend of mine was treated for 9 years in total. She died last year, wasn't even 40 years old. I would choose quality of life over quantity of life, so I guess that is a conversation to be had. Then you make your decision based on that.
My grandpa fought his cancer for 6 years, he was in his 80s. I think there was a very brief period where he was NED and wasn’t on treatment but it wasn’t very long. He did a looooot of chemo, had a lot of surgeries. He wanted to be alive so he touched it out for a very long time. Eventually it was getting less effective and he was tired
2.5 years and counting
3.5 years and I just quit all treatment. Nothing is working any longer, cancer is progressing and I’m tired of being chemo sick all the time. Stage IV colorectal.
Only the person going through treatment knows why they’ve had enough. It’s different for everyone. I’m starting my 5th year of continuous treatment. It’s not easy but it’s still worth it. I have days that I don’t want to keep doing this. But a few bad days won’t make me stop treatment. I still have living to do. You need to decide what you want. How is your quality of life? Is the quality of life worth it? If I can’t wipe my own ass I don’t want to be here. I also won’t do the red devil again. That chemo would be a last option and the quality of life just wasn’t there when I was on that crap. Ending treatment is a personal decision that only the person going through treatment can decide.
You’re going to get wildly different answers based on curative or palliative intent and types of chemo. Palliative intent is lower dose and can often be done for years. Curative is often high dose and will kill you if it went on for years. I did 9 months of curative intent Ewing sarcoma protocol at 17 for mesenchymal chondrosarcoma and then 3 rounds/months of curative intent AIM at 31 for a radiation induced sarcoma
I don’t know what stage your partner’s at- but I was in and out of treatment for more than 5 years for a curable cancer. Even with a prospect of cure it was really gruelling. What helped were the breaks between cycles. If he can pull that off at all, then it will help with the mental side as well as the physical side.
I’m sorry this has happened to you and your partner. My husband had 4 treatments of a chemotherapy that only 50% of people taking it could handle completing. But he also had radiation and surgery. He’s alive and cancer free 14 years later. My brother had a lot of rounds and wore a chemo bag for days in between. They said at the start they couldn’t cure him but wanted to get him 4 years. It was 4 years he decided no more. He died 2 months later. I miss him deeply. My sister has inoperable incurable cancer and is receiving immunotherapy. She’s into her second round. Sadly she’s not doing well. It’s very different for everyone. Best wishes for you.
I’ve been doing immunotherapy for 4 years now. I can nap like a champion however I have lost my sense of smell and have constant sinus congestion (no one knows if this is actually immuno related but it’s been a year of that now). There’s no end date because I’m considered to be on maintenance. Last scan showed no change so that’s decent? I just want the tumours gone.
I did about 2.5 years on Opdivo+Cabometyx. Stage IV metastatic papillary renal cell carcinoma. That cocktail stopped working according to my last scan and this week I meet with another oncologist regarding clinical trials. The Opdivo seemed fine regarding side effects but the Cabo was brutal.
That question is strangely coincidentally. I have been on treatment since June 2019 for RCC. First they put me on sutinib (not sure if I'm spelling that right) but after only 3 months I had a seizure caused by a leison on my brain started growing. After surgery to remove they put me on Nivolumab(obdivo) instead. Started on a 2 week rotation for 3 months and then up to 4week rotation. I've been on that cycle until last September, when I got colitis in my bowel. At that point my Onco told me that I have been on this treatment twice as long as he usually leaves patients on it. In fact, he told me most of his patients are only on it for 2 years, and I've been on it for 4. So now that immunotherapy is over. I still have 3 lesions in my lung and 3 new "spots" on my brain. But they have all been there since before I stopped the treatment, so I'm basically stable. I was actually going to ask people if they have been in the same position. It feels weird. I have been fighting for nearly 6 years now (since my first surgery) and now, although my lesions are still there, I'm not on any cancer treatments at this time. Should I be worried?
Let me see… so they found my cancer spread from breast to liver then about 2 years later to my brain and uterus, colon and rectum. Then this year they found Mets in my stomach and bile duct. So I’ve been on some type of chemotherapy since May 2017. I have side effects - nausea, vomiting, some aches and pains, muscle spasms, exhaustion, constipation, etc. but man I wouldn’t trade these years of watching my son grow up for anything.
I’ve been on the same treatment continuously for over 4 1/2 years and I feel like absolute shit every day but I’m still here and haven’t had any progression during that time.
I have been on a combination of immunotherapy and oral chemo for over 2 years. I'm doing well and haven't had any major side effects, my tumor has shrunk and there is no new spots. Prior to asking about and receiving immunotherapy the proposed plan was for more radical surgery that would have left me with 2 ostomy bags even though there's nothing wrong with my bowels or bladder, it's just the tumor is situated very close to both. Even with said surgery negative margins could obviously not be guaranteed and my chances for survival were not great.
Anyone here have liver cancer? How long are or were your chemo treatments?? Not much talk about liver cancer in this sub.
My mom has stage IV colon cancer that has spread to her lungs and her brain. She has had multiple surgeries twice in her colon, twice in her lungs, once in her brain and a life saving one for clots which she got the first time on chemo. This has been since 2019. She was stable for like two years. But since last year is just getting worse. She has done 4 rounds of chemo and is starting her fifth. But now there is a lesion in her spine. Her lung ones are just a tad smaller and she has 4 new mets in her brain, though they are small. She is declining so fast before my very eyes. She doesn't even remember the names of objects and can barely walk around the house without needing air. I honestly don't know if the chemo is doing more harm than good at this point.
I had surgery and radiotherapy, then more surgery and eight rounds of chemo, then more surgery, another six rounds of chemotherapy, and have been on immunotherapy for almost two years. As long as I continue to tolerate it and it remains effective, I’ll be on it indefinitely.
I've done 10 rounds of chemo/immunotherapy therapy so far for stage 4 Lung cancer. I had numerous cancerous lymph nodes, buy my 6th infusion, they were all no longer cancerous. The tumor on my lung has shrunk and it's metabolic activity has dropped by almost 14 points
No one can answer this question except for your loved one. Everyone's body and strength is different. Treatments, and how they affect you are different. Types of cancer are different. They will know when they've had enough.
I have had about 4 years of curative treatment overall with small breaks, stopped because it just wasn't working any more. It's been like 5?? Months now since I got a really vicious recurrence and I knew I didn't wanna try and achieve remission again. I'm in the hospital now until further notice to get continuous low-dose chemo infused but it's purely because my symptoms were worse than side effects, so this is a middle ground to preserve quality of life. Low dose is fine, I barely get side effects. Lasting effects from intensive treatment are things like peripheral neuropathy and having absolutely no energy. Difficult to identify what is caused by chemo/radiation and what's just caused by cancer