small cell lung cancer

[squaremaker]

can anyone tell me the difference in small cell and non small cell. is it worse to have small cell. my sister was just diagnoised with small cell two centimeters with 2 lymph nodes involved. no more cancer in body scan and none in fluid in lung. since the biopsy they have had to take fluid off about every week. about 2 liters. the dr. is talking poor diagnosis.does anyone know much about this kind? gaye t

[Connie B]

Welcome Gaye T. Sorry you have to need to be here.

If you go over to the side of the board you'll see a purple list of things. One of them is (About Lung Cancer) You'll find infomration there about NSCLC and SCLC.

I can share with you that Small Cell (Oat Cell) is more aggressive then Non Small Cell's (Andeocarinoma, Squamous Cell, Large Cell, BAC, Meso).

I can also tell you that Small Cell repsonds well to chemo. I have two SCLC Survivors in my In Person LC Support Group here in Minnesota one is a 9 year survivor of SCLC and the other is an 8 year survivor of SCLC. The 9 year survivor's cancer had spread to her liver and she is STILL cancer free to this day after undergoing chemo 9 years ago. My 8 year friend also is cancer free to this day. There are many people that survivor small cell and non small cell.

[MsC1210]

Hello Gaye and welcome

Connie has pretty much summed things up for you and I cannot add much to her post. I did want to say hello and welcome to the ste though..

Please keep posting and let us know how we can help.

Warmly

Chrisitne

[SandraL]

Hi Gaye and welcome to the site. There is lots of good information here about sclc. And better yet there are many kind supportive folks who are at the ready to answer any question you might have or just to be there for you or your sister. I hope you stay here and let us get to know you and how your sister are doing. The beginning is so very scary but it will get better. Take care

Sandra

[babylove91297]

Hi Gaye,

I know first hand how scary that sclc can be, but as you have been told there are many long term survivors, I am a one year survivor myself. You have come to the right place, there is so much wisdom and kindness on these boards. I will pray for you and your sister.

Hugs, Bobbie

[squaremaker]

thank you all for your wonderful responces. my sister had 2 more litre's taken off her lungs monday. she feels better for a few days then it starts filling up again. what is the fluid coming from? Will the chemo help the fluid? She has had her first round of chemo..3 days then 3 weeks off. She has had a little nausea but not that much. She is not in good health. She has had a pace maker for about 30 years and had to have emergency surgery for new one and that is how they found the cancer. It is inopperable . I would love to sit down with her dr. but we get nothing but second hand knowledge. Her niece told us he said prognosis was 7 to 9 months or if she responds well to treatment 17 months. Is this cancer terminal? Please be straight with me. If you know. small oat cell...2 centimeters wih nodes involved. none in body scan , blood work or lung fluid. thank you so much for being here. Gaye T.

[squaremaker]

I also wanted to tell you a little about my sister Jean. She is a young 70. She worked every day until her diagnosis. She worked at a small town store where everyone loves her. She is absolutely beautiful inside and out. There are 7 of us sisters in our family and I have always told her she is the prettiest. She is classy and fun. She lives with her hunband of more than 50 years on their beautiful farm in Ohio. She adores her husband and her two children and all the grandchildren. All I want is to have her for a few more years. PLease pray for her. Gaye T.

[SandraL]

Hello again Gaye. I also had 3 litres of fluid build up on my lung before diagnosis. And thank goodness for that really because that is what led to my diagnosis. I understand the fluid build up to be because the tumour is blocking stuff (well known medical term) and that leads to the build up. I was told that if it kept on building up then they would put in a permanent thing (another well known medical term) to drain it off as it went. In my case, the fluid build up never returned and I think that was because the radiation shrunk the tumour and it was no longer blocking stuff. Is your sister getting radiation as well as chemo? Chemo can also shrink the tumour so it may be in her case as well that her treatment shrinks the tumour and the fluid build up stops.

Please don't listen to any statistics anybody tells you. Because it is simply not a focus that helps anyone get through this with hope. There are many here including myself who have beaten those statistics. At the beginning I was told not to ask for any information I didn't want to hear. I have never asked and never been told. We all know them of course but it is very important not to focus on them. What is productive is a fighting positive spirit and lots of hope. Please read here for successful survivor stories and tell your sister about them.

Prayers that your sister's treatment plan works for her. Take care of yourself as well.

Sandra

ps. It is sometimes helpful to start a new thread of posts on this board. Because sometimes people will see the title of your initial post and think they have already responded. And then you may have posted an update that some will not see. So if you start a new post, in another appropriate forum, you are likely to get many more responses.

[squaremaker]

hI SANDRA, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR INFORMATION. I APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH. I'M NEW TO THIS. YES IT MAKES SENSE THAT THE FLUID WILL BUILD UP. THEY DID TALK ABOUT PUTTING IN A TUBE TO DRAIN. YES SHE IS JUST GETTING CHEMO RIGHT NOW BUT WILL GET RADIATION AFTER THAT. I'M GLAD YOU ARE DOING GOOD. MY PRAYERS TO YOU ALSO. YOU SOUND LIKE A STRONG WOMAN. THAT IS WHAT WE NEED, STRENGTH. RIGHT NOW MY SISTER IS VERY SCARED. OK, ABOUT THE RESPONCE, DO I NEED TO DO ANOTHER ONE AND START A NEW FORUM TO TELL ABOUT MY SISTER PERSONALLY? GAYE T

[recce101]

Hi, Gaye, welcome to the group!

I had a huge amount of fluid around the right lung, and the symptoms from that (cough and shortness of breath) led to my diagnosis. It was drained during an outpatient thoracentesis, then again 2 weeks later during exploratory surgery. I was told that it would probably come back, but it didn't -- the chemo slowly eliminated it except for some small trapped ("loculated") pockets which are themselves slowly reducing.

You asked for some straight talk, so let me tell you how I view my own cancer. Mine (adenocarcinoma stage IIIb) is inoperable and incurable, but I do not and will not use the word "terminal." I'm not even sure what that means, since I and every other person I know was terminal at birth. Life is inherently fatal! Anyone who has been around for a few decades undoubtedly has one or more "incurable" conditions that need to be managed with medications and/or lifestyle adjustments, and to me, cancer is another one of these. I expect to die with cancer, but not necessarily from it. In any event, at age 73 my remaining life expectancy would be limited even if I didn't have cancer. If nothing else, cancer has given me a wake-up call to repair any damage I may have caused to others during my life and make the best use of whatever years I may have left. From your description, your sister needs less of an adjustment than I did.

To answer another question, you might want to do a more complete writeup on your sister in the "My Story" forum, than put a link to it in the profile/signature section which will automatically attach to every message you post -- something like in my profile/signature section below.

Best wishes and Aloha,

Ned

[Patti B]

Hi Gaye-

Welcome to the forum altho I am sorry for the reason you need to be here.

Your sister sounds like a wonderful person and what a great sister you are to her. Where in Ohio does she live as I am outside of Cleveland in Parma Hts.

PLEASE< PLEASE don't listen to statistics. If they were true, I would not be writing this right now and I intend to be around for quite some time yet annoying people!!

If you feel like your doc is too much doom and gloom, please consider a second opinion.

I will be keeping you and your sister in my thoughts - please continue to post so we can get to know you better.

Hugs - Patti B.

[Don M]

Welcome Gaye.

I guess I have beaten the odds too. Except for 2 short periods of no evidence of disease (NED) after my 2 surgeries, I have had cancer almost 5 years now. The doctors don't really know for sure how long any one person will survive with this disease or beat it. Your sister has a chance for years of survival and that means hope for now. There may come a time when it is time for hospice but just let that time come in its own season if that is what will be.

Don M