RE:RE:RE:Things to understand about targeted cancer treatmentThanks SPCEO,
I was tired of some cr*p here and still is, but hey, I use the ignore function and stay quiet. I intend to continue to stay quiet. Also, since the beginning of May my energy level took a severe drop, and I don't know why. I passed all kind of tests, and when you have cancer you always thinks it's related to that. But as I said, I passed three type of scans plus other blood tests related to hormones and cancer, and it's normal or not worst than before. So I don't know why I am so down physically. I don't know if I got covid without the usual pulmonary symptoms to alert me that I got it, I only got huge fatigue. I hope my next two PRRT treatments will help me and if it's covid related, that I will regain vitality over time.
As for the battle against cancer, I hate this expression, because battle means your will or your strenght to win is at play, and it's obviously not the case with cancer. What is called the battle against cancer is the will to have surgeries and to follow hard therapies, but the outcome of that is not a matter of your own will to see the cance disapear. There is no direct battle between the patient and the cancer. Only the will to allow doctors to try stuff on you.
As for the fact that I have this thing for so long, the first time I met my oncologist after diagnostic, she told me that if I have had to chose a cancer type, i would have chosen this one, since it progresses very slowly in the first years. She called it indolent. But at some points it starts to slowly evolve and metastasize. My primary tumor did not grow in ten years until removal, but it metastasized to the liver and then the bones. Sometime, they don't even find the primary tumor in some patients, they only see the metastatic tumors. The primary tumor can be very smal and not growing for years, but after many years, it starts metastasizing.
Early in the process, it is very hard to distinguish these cancerous cells in the primary tumor from normal cells. That's in part why the doctor in 2008 told me it was beningn. He looked at the CT scans, and for him it was not cancerous, but, what I did not know back then, is that the radiologist report did not conclude. It stated: "It could be malign or it could be benign". I had a second CT scan one year later and the radiologist wrote the opposite in the report, which is the same: "It could be benign or it could be malign". But the doctor in charge, an experienced doctor, a surgeon, but not an oncologist, decided to discard that and tell me that according to him it was benign and not worry about that and decided to stop following me.
I thought about suing him, but after the shock of the diagnostic, I wanted peace of mind over money. So all that to say that for many years these neuroendocrine cancers evolve very slowly and it's asymptomatic, because the hormones goes directly to the liver where they are eliminated from the bloodstream, but when the cancer is metastasized to the liver, the hormones are free to go everywhere in the body, except the brain, and that's where the symptoms like fatigue sets in. But still, at that point it is not considered a very aggressive cancer. That being said, without Lu177-Dotatate, I would be dead now, or close to it, and the last five years with other aggressive chemo would have been very unpleasant. That being said, I know the worst is in front of me. That's why I hope for new targeted therapies. PRRT is easy to take in comparison to straight chemotherapy. My mother had colon and lungs cancer 20 years apart and she finally died from it after taking hard chemo, so I know what it is.
SPCEO1 wrote: First, I am glad to see you posting again. Since you had referred to a health issue more obliquely in the past, I was concerned your absence might have indicated new problems.
Second, like Juniper88, I am sorry to hear what you have been battling for so long but am amazed you have held the cancer at bay over such a long period of time. As TH indicated exhaustion occurred with some of their phase 1a patients, I am glad your journey has not been so arduous that you wanted to give up as I imagine was possible at times. I am thankful that after the initial misdiagnosis, you have seemed to get excellent care.
Third, I suspect TH is working on a whole lot of things behind the scenes and I hope they have evaluated the approach you have long been suggesting.
Fourth, I have prayed for your previously unknown health situation in the past but now you will have a more permanent place on our prayer list. May the Lord use whatever is needed to restore you to full health.