Shelley (MLC) Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 Hi everyone. I am curious about the term restaging. My mom was diagnosed with stage lV squamous cell. They are only able to do chemo at this time due to the large size of the masses in her right lung. I have read several posts from people that started out at stage lV and were restaged to 2 or 3 after chemo had shrunk the tumors. If this happens with mom, I assume she would be a candidate for radiation or even surgery. How likely is this? Does it happen that often? I don't want to mention anything about this to her until I have more information. Thanks! Shelley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welthy Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 Shelley, My understanding is once a Stage IV, always a Stage IV. Check with Doctor West on his website for clarification. He is very good. Welthy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley (MLC) Posted February 25, 2007 Author Share Posted February 25, 2007 That's what I would have thought also, but I read 2 posts the other day that mentioned they had been restaged after preliminary treatment. I'll definitely check with Dr. West about this. His site has been very helpful also. Thanks so much for your reply. Shelley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWest Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 Welthy's right. It's really fair to say that even if we see a good response in stage IV, you can't be considered a stage I or II if you take out a metastatic spot with surgery or radiation. If it traveled through the bloodstream to set up a metastatic lesion (which is really what the term metastatic designates), we presume that there are still other micrmetastates traveling through the bloodstream that the scans can't see but are still ready to cause trouble in the future. You really can't be "downstaged" by treatment of advanced disease. We do sometimes use that term loosely just to say that we're assessing response to treatment. If we're trying to get a 2nd or 3rd PET scan on someone, we can often get it covered by insurance for "restaging", even if that term isn't exactly precise. Downstaging or restaging is more relevant for early stage patients who have undergone treatment before a potential surgery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley (MLC) Posted February 25, 2007 Author Share Posted February 25, 2007 Thank you so much Dr. West. I was surprised to see someone state that they had been restaged to a "2" after chemo. As I recall, they did associate this restaging with a PET scan. It probably was an insurance related term. I did not bring this up with my mom as it sounded too good to be true. Thanks for taking time to respond. Shelley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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