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Hi people I need some guidance..


Glenvern

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My name is Vernon and I have just lost half my right lung to a secondary cancer (the first being a Colon cancer which I had 4 years ago)..

I need a bit of cheering up as every time I go into a lung cancer info site I get the same miserable :( piece of news that only 1 in 20 Lung cancer sufferers survive the year..

Have any of you survived more than the year :?:

(if you didn't survive the year then you can reply via my ouiji board)... :D

Did you have surgery :?:

Did you have Chemo or other teatment :?:

Thanx..

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Vernon--

You are gonna find so many 'more than a year' survivors here that it's gonna knock your socks off.

And Connie B is gonna chime in and tell you what kind of amazing veteran SHE is.

And I can tell you that my Daddy's lovely bride is a 12 or 13 year LC survivor.

If you're looking for hope, you'll find it here.

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Vernon,

Keep that chin up, as you will find so many who have lived and lived and lived! My dad is one of those...we are two years in, with no current sign of disease, when his original diagnosis was 2 - 6 months!

I am a prayer, so I believe in that...I will say one for you too!

Jen

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Vernon,

First, I will tell you that many, many, many people on this board have had lengthy survival.

I have never seen a statistic that stated that only 1 in 20 survive a year for non-small cell lung cancer....that is a 5% one-year survival rate, and is way, way off. The WORST commonly quoted stat I see is 5 year survival at 15%-20%, which is based on old data and a mix of factors that do not effect everyone. (I am assuming you do not have small-cell LC, since you had surgery. Surgery is not usually used in small cell lung cancer.)

As a matter of fact, if you had surgery, I would guess that you would be an earlier stage of LC (3A or lower?), in which case those statistics would not apply to you at all! Many folks are diagnosed at a higher stage and are not able to have surgery, because localized surgery is not necessarily effective at higher stages. In short, if you had surgery, you are fortunate. Surgery is considered to be part of a potentially curative course of treatment. It is usually followed by chemo, sometimes radiation, depending on circumstances. All tough for many, but part of the intent to cure that surgery is part of.

It would be great for us to know more about your situation so that we can answer you more knowledgeably. You say this is a secondary cancer - do you mean that it has spread to your lungs from the colon, or do you mean that it is a second primary...that you had colon cancer, and now have lung cancer? They are 2 different situations.

If a primary lung cancer, do you know what kind - adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, BAC, etc?

Since you had surgery, you probably have a pathology report that tells you the type and that tells you if it was detected in any lymph nodes. Those facts are important in your staging and treatment.

I assume you don't have metastatic spread to the bones, liver, brain, etc., since you had surgery. That's a good prognostic factor.

So - it's important to know exactly what you have (type, stage) when you look at stats, and even then it's important to know the limitations of statistics.

You have already been through a lot - remember that you can be cured, and that you need not burden yourself with negative, incorrect statistics.

Welcome to the group, too!

Mary

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Vernon,

I had the middle and lower lobe of my right lung removed exactly five years ago as of last Sunday. I had radiation and took Iressa for two months on a one-year trial (side effects were crazy and I was taken off the study).

Welcome to the family, sorry you had reason to join but glad you are here strong-in-the-arm.

I made it the year...and a second...

My history is below:

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Hi Vernon, I was originally diagnosed stage 3A. Had surgery, radiation & Chemo. I am 4 and 1/2 years out and doing very well despite some recurrences along the way.

I Just worked out with weights this morning and ran 2 miles. I am hoping to run another 10k in May of this year.

Joe B

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Welcome! I've never seen statistics as awful as those you quoted. I was diagnosed with NSCLC (Upper lobe, R lung) in May 2003 and had surgery and adjuvant chemo. Eighteen months later another tumor appeared in the upper lobe of my left lung and had surgery and chemo again. Both were staged as 1B. I'm doing fine.

Muriel

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Thank you guys for your replies and prayers..

Afraid I can't offer much in the way of detail about my cancers, I really didn't want to know, I just wanted them gone.

If I remember I will ask these questions of the Oncologist when I see him (must remember to take a notepad)

They did say the Lung cancer was a secondary from the Colon (it had spread from the colon to lung)..

Haven't seen any path reports todate but might get one eventually.

.

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Welcome Vernon :P !

Here I am..........llla OR lllb ~ depending upon whom you ask. To save LOTS of time may I suggest you go to the My Story forum and look for Kasey's Story. That will give you ~ in a nutshell ~ my journey to date. Let me just say that in the fall of 2004 I was told I would not see flowers in the spring of '05 and that there was NO light at the end of my tunnel. GUESS WHAT?!?! It is just about 3-1/2 years later and I'm really looking forward to the flowers of 2008 and my light has never been brigher :lol: !!!

There you have it, new friend of ours. Glad to welcome you to the kick LC butt club!!!! I'm just not so sure that yours IS bigger than mine :wink::roll: !

Kasey

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Hello Vernon and Welcome

As you can see, there are many here who have survived much more than just a year.

I am so glad you found this site and hope you will continue to post and let us help you with your fight.

Just let us know how we can be of assistance and know someone is always here to offer you advice, answers and HOPE.

Warmly

Christine

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"Glenvern"]

They did say the Lung cancer was a secondary from the Colon (it had spread from the colon to lung)..

Haven't seen any path reports todate but might get one eventually.

.

Hello Again Vernon,

I did answer your post in the Intro Forum but I do want to touch base with you here too.

First off, if this is a spread from your Colon cancer, then this is NOT lung cancer. You have colon cancer that has spread to the lung. This is so confusing to so many of us. You will not be treated the same as a lung cancer patient and your treatments can be very different then what lung cancer patients are given.

Many cancer's spread to the lung, but this does not make them lung cancer. If I had lung cancer that spread to the brain, I would not have brain cancer but rather I would have lung cancer that has spread to the brain, the primary being lung cancer. Does this make sense to you?

I just don't want you to get any misguided information here if your a colon cancer patient and not a lung cancer patient.

Check with your Onc doc and see what he says. Let us know what you find out. We're here to help, but I don't want you to get the wrong information if your cancer is not lung cancer (being the primary tumor). :wink: I'm not trying to chase you away, this is very important that you make sure what kind of cancer your cancer is.

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I will have to ask whether this was a Colon cancer or Lung cancer.

I think I am getting an information overload at the moment, I seem to have so much going on trying to keep up with all the different categories of cancers.

all these 1A 3B's etc.. are quite meaningless to me, I just thought I had lung cancer full stop.. But it appears not so..

But whether I know whats going on or not I'm glad I found this website. I have never come across so many nice people in any one place at the same time..

(A question for a moderator - How do you change the size and color of your text, HTML is ON but the HTML does not seem to want to work, as you can see below on this post. I am using it displays the tag but removes the instructions, what am I doing wrong?)..

.

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Hi, Vernon, it's me again. I saw your question before Muriel had a chance to send the PM.

It's not HTML, at least not like any HTML I've ever seen. And it uses square brackets [ ] to enclose the code, not angle brackets < > like HTML does. The codes are shown at the top of the "Post a new topic" and "Post a reply" entry screens (you can run your mouse over the buttons and get a quick education), and the same codes work in the profile/signature entry window although there are no buttons at the top of that screen to help you out.

If you wanted your profile to display maroon and size 8, you would code it like this (disregard the space before the right bracket in the codes -- I did that so they wouldn't take effect and disappear):

August 2003 Colon Cancer diagnosed.

October 2003 Operation to remove Cancer.

etc. etc. etc.[/color ][/size ]

And with the codes properly entered (no spaces), the lines will display like this:

August 2003 Colon Cancer diagnosed.

October 2003 Operation to remove Cancer.

etc. etc. etc.

You can practice using a new topic or reply entry screen, which has a preview function, then when you're satisfied, instead of posting your test for the world to see, just copy everything in the entry window and paste it into the profile/signature window.

Hope that's reasonably clear. Aloha,

Ned

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Hi Vernon-

Me, again, I posted to you on the intro forum.

Don't EVER listen to statistics!!! They don't know how long any of us have. I was supposed to MAYBE last a year, its been a year and a half, and I just got a STABLE CAT scan report today which means I have more time coming to kick some more cancer a*s.

Think positive, stay strong. Keep us posted on how you are doing!!

Patti B.

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Welcome Vernon,

Glad you found us. As you can see many of us are still here after a year. I'm 3 months away from 6 years at Stage IV (read my profile) so statistics don't mean a whole heck of a lot. Sounds like your putting the cart in front of the horse without getting all the facts. Do some research and ask your doctor questions. Knowledge is the key. Be pro-active, stay positive and get on with life the best way you can. Stay with us and keep us posted on how it goes. Hope this helps. Good Luck!

Rich

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Hi Glenvern,

A lung tumor was my second cancer too. I had breast cancer in 2001 and lung cancer in 2003, but those two incidents are getting farther and farther in the past for me, and I hope the same for you!

Cindy

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Hi Vernon,

I also had a lobe of my right lung removed. The surgery was followed by chemo and radiation therapy. I’m still cancer free 2 years later. If your surgery was to remove a NSCLC (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer), you may want to ask your doctor if there would be any benefit in receiving adjuvant chemo therapy. I have read that is the standard of care for anybody who has had surgery for stage 2 NSCLC or higher. Some doctors also prescribe that treatment for stage 1b NSCLC. Either way you really should ask your doctor about it. Good luck and do not hesitate to ask lots of questions here.

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Vernon, you have a lot of good info here.

You have more "correct stats being given...but don't worry about those pesky things anyway. You aren't a stat.

Your type of cancer will determine your best course of treatment. If it spread from your colon, you don't actually have Lung Cancer...but we won't hold that against you :). And if it's the primary, and you had surgery...that's actually a good thing. (I know only in the LC world is surgery good). Its a good thing because that means they caught it early enough to surgically remove.

All in Vernon...I'm betting on you to do really well.

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