thebody68 Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Hi, I'm new to this site, just had a few questions, any help would be appreciated. My dad is 70 yrs old. Was a heavy smoker up till 15 yrs ago. The Dr.s found a small tumor in his lng back in november with no symptoms, thought they caught it early . So it was scheduled to be removed . When The Surgeon went in, he saw a few lymph nodes were cancerous. Closed him up and said to get 5 weeks of chemo (Taxol and Carboplatin) and radiation, come back in and they'll remove it then. So they go in the second time and now he has very small cancerous spots scattered on the outter lining of the same lung. Closed him up again, and said he was inoperable. They declare him 3B now. Now I have hil local oncologist saying to go with Taxotere/Cisplatin and Avastin. An oncologist in Mt Sinai is reccomending Alitma on its own. Who do you listen to at this point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiredmom959 Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I'm not the best source medically here, but I'd say listen to a completely new doctor. What does everyone else here think? Opening him up twice for nothing sounds a little odd to me, but I may be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilb Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 You obviously need another opinion, but you also need to ask the two oncologists some questions. The "local" doctor is suggesting an aggressive first-line approach. The Mt. Sinai doctor is suggesting an approach that is safer (probably with fewer side effects) but probably less likely to produce a response. Your dad needs to make a decision based on his physical condition, desires, etc., but I would also probably "confront" (not really the right word) the two oncologists with each other's recommendations. See if you can get them to say why they make the suggestions that they have. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebody68 Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 Hi, The thoracic Surgeon, out of Mt. Sinai, said statistically you are better off not removing anything if the lymph nodes have cancer. Thats why they did radiation and chemo. He hoped the second time around, the lymph nodes would be dead, but now it has spread. So the taxotere/cidplatin with avastin is the more aggressive approach? He feels pretty good.. just confused on what to do. We have an appointment with an oncologist tomorrow at sloan, and he is supposed to start chemo with either oncologist on friday. Hopefully sloan has an opinion on this? When in doubt, do you listen to Sloan because of theyre reputation? I really appreciate the help.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raneyf Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I'm not sure either. It sounds like the Alimta oncologist is moving on to 2nd line because your dad got Taxol and Carbo already and seemed to progress on those? I would ask if he was getting a full strength dose of this during radiation (I would think probably not) and if this would matter in terms of the cancer being resistant to these agents. This might be a good question for Dr. West at onctalk.com. I'm glad you have an appt. at Sloan. I would probably give their opinion considerable weight because of their reputation. Good Luck, Raney Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connie B Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I had 3 lymph nodes that were cancerous and they removed them. I'm a 12 year lung cancer survivior. I was a stage IIIA when I went into surgery and when I came out they restaged me a IIIB. I'm so sorry to here this news for your dad. Sadly enough some doc's still think late stage lung cancer is a death sentence and it's NOT! Best wishes to you and your dad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ernrol Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 It seems to me that they should have determined that it was inoperable before they opened him up. I had Carboplatin, Taxol and Tarceva. Taxotere/Cisplatin and Avastin are also used a lot Avastin may be favored more than Tarceva now. I had good results with Tarceva. I would defiantly get a second opinion from one of the larger cancer centers like Sloan Kettering in New York or M.D. Anderson in Houston. Keep us posted. Stay positive, Ernie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebody68 Posted June 7, 2007 Author Share Posted June 7, 2007 thanks so much everyone for responding. We actually went into Sloan to see a thoracic surgeon, and he read everything and surprised us. According to the Dr.s notes, the first time he went in, he biopsied the lymph nodes and 2 spots on the pleura, and they both came back positive. The Sloan surgeon said he doesn't understand it, that after the first time in, if the pleura comes back positive with cancer, you are 3B right there and would never go back in. He also said there was no benefit to my dad getting 5 weeks of radiation, and even the chemo to a degree because he didn't get a full dose because of getting the radiation. He said he wouldve went straight to chemo only!!! That this is protocal. The surgeon is well known in Mt Sinai, and never said anything about a positive test on the pleura the 1st operation. Is this negligent? Now we are totally confused. We have an appointment with a Sloan thoracic oncologist in 2 weeks, and he said waiting for the appointment with no treatment is ok. He hasn't had any treatment in 6 weeks. Any thoughts? Thanks so much!!!!! Kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fillise Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Kevin, I know that in the six week's between my mom's DX and beginning her chemo treatments it bothered her tremendously that the tumor was in there "growing" all that time, but her Dr. was adament about the rest between the radiation and the chemo. I think he is ok with the time frame, but I know the waiting and not feeling like your are fighting is hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palves Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Kevin My dad was dx w/ Stage 3B. My dad started a trial protocol while we sought opinion at Sloan as well. We saw both a surgeon and an oncologist. Since we didn't have a definitive yes as to whether the lung needed to be removed fully or not, we were not comfortable with moving forward. We also decided because of the travel (from NJ) it might be too difficult to treat at Sloan on a daily basis (w/ radiation). The one thing that I have been told about Sloan but some who have been treated is that they are very agressive in treatment and trying new things. So there is the benefit there. While we opted not to treat there, others have had very good success. See dad's profile below for more information. Althoguh we didn't opt to start at Sloan, if I thought they could provide more, I wouldn't hesitate going back to Sloan to seek further treatment Paula Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebody68 Posted June 8, 2007 Author Share Posted June 8, 2007 Hi Paula. How is your dad doing now? How did he do with Alimta? Removing the whole lung was never discussed, i guess because it spread to the pleura. Thanks, Kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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