Just signed up on site

[TerryB]

Hi, my name is Terry and I was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer which they could not operate. I had radiation for 33 days and also two sessions of chemo(Cisplatin(day 1 & 8 and Etopiside(days 1-5). Went in for scans a few weeks after I was finished everything and they said mass and lymph node both shrunk a little. What surprised my wife and I is that the doctor seemed happy with results. He mentioned the mass could be just dead/inactive cancer cells(not sure about terminology). Unfortunately my lower left lung has collapsed and I now have a blood clot in my right lung.

What I am very excited about is getting Durvalumab every two weeks for a year. While a little disappointed with chemo/radiation I think immunotherapy is the future. Had my first treatment yesterday and no side effects. Have many people been given Durvalumab and curious on thoughts/results? Thanks, sorry for rambling.

 

[LUNGevityKristin]

Welcome, TerryB!  Did you have biomarker testing done?  Do you have a mutation?

[TerryB]

Hi Kristen, thanks. Did not have a biomarker or mutation to the best of my knowledge? Not sure if I should have but I am very happy

with my doctors.

[GaryG]

Hi Terry:  Sorry you were diagnosed with with stage 3 lung cancer and welcome to our group.  I reiterate what Kristen asked did you have biomarker testing done and if the first test did not find any mutations you need to request a second one. Some of our members here had a negative result on the first one but the second one discovered a mutation. A mutation does not lead with with certainty to a cure but it gives you an additional mean to combat cancer.

It is important that you like your doctors, but it is also important that you learn about lung cancer and participate in your treatment. For example you could ask why you are given Durvalumab without a chemotherapy?  

Now back to your treatment. I was diagnosed with stage III B but I did not qualify for radiation or surgery due to the density and location location of the cancer. So in a sense the more tools we have to combat cancer, like radiation, the better.  Over 9 months later my oncologist describes the results of my treatment as excellent but he has yet to declare me NED. Some of his reasons are dead tissue  and scar tissues.

The fact that you show improvement in a short time  is a great achievement . Lung cancer is a war with many battles. Some of us endure set backs and difficult side effects. The only way to endure the pain is with hope, determination and most of all patience.  I hope your journey will be a lot easier and I hope you visit often and gain knowledge from our experience. We are ready to help so ask your questions at will. I wish you the best.

[Donna G]

Hello Terry       Glad you found us.    I was also diagnosed with Stage 3 B  lung cancer .

I had Cisplatin and Etopiside and daily radiation to start . They killed my cancer . I  was able later to have surgery  

and then more of that same chemo .  I am still hear and NED ( no evidence of disease ) 

I hope you also respond well . Please keep us posted on how you are doing . 

Donna G

[Tom Galli]

Terry,

Welcome here.

Our complex treatment vocabulary keeps getting more and more complicated. From your post, I conclude you've had first line treatment (33 fractional radiation sessions & 2 chemo infusions). Then you report your tumors shrunk. That qualifies you to receive the new immunotherapy drug Durvalumab (trade name Imfinzi). According to the FDA, adults with non resectable stage III non small cell lung cancer whose disease has not progressed following concurrent platinum based chemotherapy (you had Cisplatin) and radiation therapy (you had 33 sessions) should get Durvalumab as a second line treatment. So you qualify by definition; great news! You don't need biomarker testing. The fact your tumors responded positively to platinum based chemo and radiation put you in the Durvalumab treatment pool. And this is good stuff!

More good news: we happen to have a very large knowledge base on people who've had Durvalumab. It covers everything from treatment outcomes to side effects. You can read it starting here. Your doctor should be happy with the results, and you should expect good results from Durvalumab. It works!

Here are my suggestions for surviving lung cancer. They were written well before the emergence of immunotherapy as a treatment means. But, they apply nevertheless.

Immunotherapy has dramatically changed the lung cancer treatment environment with long term survival outcomes increasing at a rapid rate. Most of us peek at Dr. Google's survival statistics, but they are irrelevant because they don't capture the large survival bump caused by immunotherapy and other new treatments. Here is another reason these statistics are not very predictive.

So on balance, your doctor is happy, and you should be also! Read up on Durvalumab and ask questions. We'll be around to answer.

Stay the course.

Tom

 

[TerryB]

Thanks Tom. You cleared a lot up for me. Looking forward to participating in this forum!!

[Judy M2]

Hi Terry, I'll pipe in too. I am Stage 3b and was not a candidate for surgery. I first had 30x radiation and 6x chemo (carboplatin and taxol) . When I had a bronchoscopy prior to treatments, biomarker testing was done on the tissue samples that were biopsied, and I was found to have an EGFR mutation, which meant I could benefit from a targeted therapy (this is different from immunotherapy). My oncologist initially planned to put me on Durva but reconsidered after getting the results of the biomarker testing. 

Fast forward almost a year and I continue to have "continued positive treatment results". I am not NED but all my scans show marked improvement and a lot of "normal" and "unremarkable", and pneumonitis and radiation damage are healing. 

There is a lot to learn about this disease, and this site is a good place to do that. There is a lot of inspiration here too. I wish you well on your journey. Don't hesitate to ask questions! 

[TerryB]

Thanks Judy.  Great for the continued positive treatment results. I'm getting my second infusion on the 23rd and also getting the second dose of Moderna the same day. Don't know what to expect from second Moderna dose but the first was fine. I'm going through older posts and really just trying to learn as much as I can Thank you for your kind words.