catlady91 Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 My mum was diagnosed with stage 3B inoperable squamous cell non small cell lung cancer. The doctors have been really positive and are aiming for a cure. My mum had aggressive chemo and four or five weeks of radiotherapy. In June she started immunotherapy (durvalumab or imfimzi). Her scan in may showed the tumour reduced by half which the doctor said was excellent news. She has a pet scan on 28 July. The doctors are aiming for a cure. I've read survivor stories online and a lot of them survived because their cancer was operable. Are there many long term survivors with inoperable lung cancer who are cured? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 I'm currently going through a very similar treatment - chemo/radiation/immunotherapy (durvalumab) I strongly suggest checking out the group on here specifically for those on Durvalumab. I wasn't considered a good candidate for surgery, and so far have show good success on this therapy. After chemo/radiation I was down about 40% and I just had my first scan after starting Durvy and I'm down again! I started at 5cm and am now 1.8cm with 9 months to go on treatment. My team has always talked about curative intent and I'm going with what they are saying. Trust me, googling the stats that are our there are depressing to say the least, but immunotherapy is relatively new in the lung cancer world, and there are lots of great results coming from it. There's a great post on here that I came across that actually lead me to the forums: https://lungevity.org/news-blogs/blogs/10-steps-to-surviving-lung-cancer-from-survivor. It really put things into perspective for me. All the best to your mom, she's luck to have you looking out for her and finding any helpful information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catlady91 Posted July 20, 2020 Author Share Posted July 20, 2020 Thanks for your reply Lindsay. Well done on your good results! Looking online makes me feel anxious but knowing that statistics aren't always accurate and are compiled based on how people previously faired and don't take into account new treatments and improvements make me feel better. You're right; your oncologist and my mum's oncologist said that they're aiming for a cure so there's no need to doubt that or read into it. Here's to immunotherapy and you, my mum and others on this forum being long-term survivors! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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