john

You could ask the Dr about amofostine. It is supposed to help with some of the side effects. It was in clinical trials and am not sure of the results. As other people said there are drugs to combat nausea and low blood counts caused by Cisplatin As you know it can be hard on the kidneys so I think you are supposed to keep very hydrated

Mets to the adrenals are pretty common with lung cancer. Sometimes a Dr will actually resect the met if it is on one adrenal. Sometimes but rarely even if the mets are on both adrenals a resection will be done

Ask the Dr what the report means. You can also ask the Dr about the "margins". Were they clear or not? If there is no mention of nodules, then maybe the Dr is probably just checking to see if recovery from the surgery is OK. It is unlikely a reoccurrence this early. My guess, but ask the Dr any questions your have. Don't be afraid to bother him if necessary

Betty Sorry you are here. Since you are a non-smoker, you might want to look into a drug called Tarceva. Usually works best in non-smoking women. Seems to work better for Asians also Take care

I would try to get him other doctors, perhaps try Roswell if he is in Buffalo. A doctor that says "he hopes it is lung cancer. because it is the most treatable" seems kind of strange to me.

As EastCoastLadi said maybe try somewhere else. Roswell cancer center in Buffalo is a NCI designated center. Sometimes Low molecular weight herapin (LMWH) is used instead of coumadin. Coumadin I heard is sometimes hard to use since it is affected by what you eat. LMWH does not have the same problems as cumadin but it is more expensive and it is given by an injection There are different chemos that may have less side effects that may prolong life and also help quality of life Maybe Oral HYCAMTIN (topotecan) will be tried? Of course someone has to ask your FIL what he wants as far as treatment goes Take care

There was an article in Time about inflamation and cancer. I think aspirin can thin the blood and reduce inflamation so maybe there is something to this? Also giving low weight molecular herapin is supposed to increase survival time (it is a blood thinner) If you google LWMH cancer dvt you can find articles also I think if you google inflamation cancer

Another thing to think about is clinical trials. You can read on the net about them and ask the doctor what is available You can get information at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov

Avastin (Bevacizumab) can cause some very series bleeding problems. Patients with squamous cell can not use avastin. Bleed events were fatal in 1.9% (avastin-chemo) compared to 0.7% (chemo-only) of patients in one clinical trial. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medical ... wsid=41539 Your mom seemed to do well on Tarceva. There are trials for HKI-272. HKI-272 is a drug that is supposed to work once Tarceva stops working I think the side effects are less than chemo. There are other clinical trials to research also and ask about if your mother wants a clinical trial I vote for a 2nd opinion

Moffit is a National Cancer Institute "Designated" cancer center. Which means it had to pass certain standards to get listed by NIH. Basically it got a rubber stamp just like Sloan, Hopkins and many other cancer centers around the country

HKI-272 is in phase II trials now. It is like Tarceva but it is an irreversible Kinase inhibitor versus a reversible one. There seems to be good science behind the drug. The researchers have identified the mutation that occurs when the cancer becomes resistent to tarceva. Additionally, they have developed a new class of Tarceva like drugs that is supposed work even with a resistence to Tarceva I think it sounds pretty good, but it is still in trials so we shall see.

Are there any mets outside of the lungs? If the cancer is confined to the lungs *maybe* Tarceva is worth a try? Can't really say obviously but something to ask the doctor about Sometimes a cancer called BAC will only spread slowly and stay in the lungs. Tarceva is supposed to work well on this type of cancer It might not be right for your mom but can't hurt to ask the Dr what he thinks.

Yes Mass General did a lot of the research on the mutations that occur when tarceva becomes resistent. I think they were also the first to identify what patients will respond to Tarceva based on a genetic mutation As far as liver mets go "sometimes/rarely" radio frequency ablation could be used if there are few mets. It usually would not be because the cancer is "systemic". Sometimes mets are treated locally such as an isolated brain or adrenal met. There might be a little evidence that removing a met for an indolent cancer might be a little beneficial It would be hard to find someone to do this One other option for liver mets is chemo embolism

SCLC will sometimes met to the ovary. jcawork on the board had a possible met there. Also OhioKat on this board had a met to the ovary Do a search on this board for ovary and look for OhioKat

http://jjco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/cont ... l/33/8/404 It is pretty rare. There is one case of a Chinese women at the above link. I am pretty sure that a women I think from kentucky had mets to the ovary that posted on lchelp.com

Read as much as you can get your hands on and then you as a patient should have a large degree of input in your treatment. How big does a met have to be treated? How about zero? For sclc, PCI (prophylatic cranial irradiation) is given before any brain mets are even detected. Since brain mets have a high ocurrence in sclc it was determined that giving radiation to the brain before any mets appeared lead to a survival advantage. Simialar trials are being started on NSCLC. Given that, you have to weigh all the pros and cons. Almost all treatments for cancer have some pretty bad side effects. Good luck

Nodes that are on the opposite side (contralateral) are worse than nodes on the same side (ipsilateral) as the primary tumor Yours is lymph station #7 which is a N2 node. Lymph nodes numbered 10-14 are N1 nodes. N3 nodes mean a latter stage than yours IIIB and N1 nodes mean a earlier stage. I think with a medianoscopy they remove the nodes that they can reach. One can not determine by size if a lymph node is cancerous I would ask the doctor this. It is best to do a full lymph node disection during surgery versus a sampling. I would want all the lymph nodes that can be removed during surgery to be removed, though (I think it can cause lymphodema - swelling) During surgery all the lymph nodes can not be reached usually but I would ask your questions to the doctor From what I have read a full disection (removing all the lymph nodes) is the best as far as preventing recurrence

The doctors should be able to give you more information on your cancer which may help your decision. If there are factors such as high mitotic rate, vascular invasion or if the cancer is a high grade cancer then it might make more sense to do some form of adjuvant therapy (either chemo or another trial) There are other options besides chemo such as vaccines or other targeted therapy, though most are not approved yet and so are usually given through a clinical trial In one study I read, 1% of patients died from the chemo so there is some risk with chemo. Platinum based chemo can cause hearing problems, neuropathy and can be hard on the kidneys If the pathology report says that the cancer is slow growing or has a "low mitotic rate" chemothreapy may not work, because chemo works best against fast growing cancers. Just my 2 cents. Good luck

There is a new class of drugs called irreversible EGFR inhibitors. The theory is that they will work when the cancer mutates and becomes resistent to Tarceva http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... t=Abstract HKI-272 is one of the drugs. There are a few others in early trials. They are very new and Phase I/Phase II trials, but it may be an option http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/N ... 3B?order=6

Congratulations! I used to run cross country a long time ago and now years later I currently can't run a 10K at that pace with two full lungs!!!! Maybe this will provide me with a little inspiration to get in shape Good job.

Try Johns Hopkins, NIH, University of Maryland (i think there is a cancer center there). Georgetown Lombardi cancer center

Sometimes induction or neoadjuvant chemo therapy is used for Stage IIIa, IIIB with the hopes that it will be "downstaged" The lymph nodes no longer have cancer in them or at least are not detectable via mediascoscopy or other means. If a patient is downstaged then a resection is sometimes done google on : downstaged "lung cancer" google on : induction chemotherapy downstaging or Neoadjuvant downstaging

other drugs CL-387785 Drug | Biochemical characteristics | Target selectivity | Clinical development in NSCLC EMD 72000 Humanized MAb Selective for EGFR Phase I ABX-EGF Fully human MAb Selective for EGFR Phase I hR3 Humanized MAb Selective for EGFR Phase I CI-1033 Irreversible TKI Pan-ErbB inhibitor Phase I PKI-166 Reversible TKI EGFR/ErbB-2 dual inhibitor Phase I GW2016 Reversible TKI EGFR/ErbB-2 dual inhibitor Phase I EKB-569 Irreversible TKI EGFR/ErbB-2 dual inhibitor Phase I

Erbitux does not work as well as Tarceva for some NSCLC. see link below http://www.dfci.harvard.edu/abo/news/pr ... ective.asp http://www.drugdevelopment-technology.c ... s/zactima/ A New drug called Zactima (ZD6474) is being developed also (from AstraZeneca, same manufacturer as Iressa You can do searches on google for TKI or "tyrosine kinase inhibitor" or "EGFR inhibitor" or ErbB-1 inhibitor - to find other drugs of this class

There are a new class of drugs being tested called irreversible EGFR inhibitors. Tarceva and Iressa are reversible EGFR inhibitors. EKB-569 HKI-272 NOTE: These are in early phases of clinical trials so are very experimental http://www.dfci.harvard.edu/abo/news/pr ... ective.asp http://www.drugdevelopment-technology.c ... s/zactima/ A New drug called Zactima (ZD6474) is being developed also (from AstraZeneca, same manufacturer as Iressa