Aa
Treatments
Hi,
I just had the results of my PET scan which showed cancer in lymph nodes in my groin and in my back. I had chemo-radiation for cervical cancer 2 years ago. So prognosis is not good.They say I have between 9 and 18 months to live. Of course I find this hard to except and am constantly looking online for treatments.
I am very interested in having Hyperthemia treatment with my chemo and also want to find out if it is possible to have cyberknife treatment. My own oncoligist says the only treatment is carbo-taxol chemo for symptom relief. I am only 30yrs old and i am not ready to die! Do you think the treatments i have mentioned might help?
Thanks, Donna
I just had the results of my PET scan which showed cancer in lymph nodes in my groin and in my back. I had chemo-radiation for cervical cancer 2 years ago. So prognosis is not good.They say I have between 9 and 18 months to live. Of course I find this hard to except and am constantly looking online for treatments.
I am very interested in having Hyperthemia treatment with my chemo and also want to find out if it is possible to have cyberknife treatment. My own oncoligist says the only treatment is carbo-taxol chemo for symptom relief. I am only 30yrs old and i am not ready to die! Do you think the treatments i have mentioned might help?
Thanks, Donna
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Dear Donna,
thank you for your question. Jassi and Igeli - thank you for your excellent responses.
Recurrent cervical cancer can behave in many ways. As you sort through your treatment options, you should also be attentive to what symptoms you are having. Pain, and difficulty with urination can be 2 significant issues in cervical cancer. Leg swelling and lymphedema is another.
as far as therapy, the traditional approach has been chemotherapy.
chemo drugs include:
platinum (cisplatinum and carboplatinum)
taxol
topotecan
ifosphamide
adriamycin
hormonal therapy is not effective
if the recurrence is isolated, surgical resection and /or focused radiation therapy (which is what IMRT is) should be considered.
for isolated deep lymph nodes, radiofrequency ablation or cryoablation are other options
I am not familiar with hyperthermia in this setting. The paper the Igeli cites studies the use of hyperthermia as primary therapy for advanced cervical cancer and not for recurrent cervical cancer.
Best wishes to you. Please let us know how you are doing
thank you for your question. Jassi and Igeli - thank you for your excellent responses.
Recurrent cervical cancer can behave in many ways. As you sort through your treatment options, you should also be attentive to what symptoms you are having. Pain, and difficulty with urination can be 2 significant issues in cervical cancer. Leg swelling and lymphedema is another.
as far as therapy, the traditional approach has been chemotherapy.
chemo drugs include:
platinum (cisplatinum and carboplatinum)
taxol
topotecan
ifosphamide
adriamycin
hormonal therapy is not effective
if the recurrence is isolated, surgical resection and /or focused radiation therapy (which is what IMRT is) should be considered.
for isolated deep lymph nodes, radiofrequency ablation or cryoablation are other options
I am not familiar with hyperthermia in this setting. The paper the Igeli cites studies the use of hyperthermia as primary therapy for advanced cervical cancer and not for recurrent cervical cancer.
Best wishes to you. Please let us know how you are doing
Hi, Thankyou you both for your kind replies,
I am waiting to see a private doctor so that I can ask about all these other treatments, my own oncoligist knows nothing about these treatments. She did look up hyperthemia but told me it has caused kidney failure, were you told this Igeli? Because of the NHS system here in England I cant seem to get any info on treatments that arent used on the NHS. I am waiting to see a private doctor but I first have to wait for my scans to be copyed to them which can take up to 40 days! I decided I cant wait that long before getting any treatment as it has now been about 6 weeks since the pet scan. So I start chemo in 2 weeks and will see if there are other treatments I can have after my chemo.
I did email some dutch clinics about hyperthemia but have had no reply. Please do tell me about your hyperthemia treatment Igeli, do you have it at exactly the same time as recieving your chemo or is there a gap between treatments?
I am learning from my own research that cyberknife is prob not an option but I found another radiation treatment called IMRT if anyone knows about it?
Thanks, Donna x
I am waiting to see a private doctor so that I can ask about all these other treatments, my own oncoligist knows nothing about these treatments. She did look up hyperthemia but told me it has caused kidney failure, were you told this Igeli? Because of the NHS system here in England I cant seem to get any info on treatments that arent used on the NHS. I am waiting to see a private doctor but I first have to wait for my scans to be copyed to them which can take up to 40 days! I decided I cant wait that long before getting any treatment as it has now been about 6 weeks since the pet scan. So I start chemo in 2 weeks and will see if there are other treatments I can have after my chemo.
I did email some dutch clinics about hyperthemia but have had no reply. Please do tell me about your hyperthemia treatment Igeli, do you have it at exactly the same time as recieving your chemo or is there a gap between treatments?
I am learning from my own research that cyberknife is prob not an option but I found another radiation treatment called IMRT if anyone knows about it?
Thanks, Donna x
Hallo
I can understand that you dont accept when you are told that there is a certain number of monthes left! Thats only statistics which means it is true but it has nothing to do with your special case. No one knows what your specific tumor is doing. I am not an expert, but as a patient with poor prognosis, I was also looking for a treatment options that might improve results. Hyperthermia is promising for several tumors when added to either chemo or radiotherapia. But so far it is not more than just promising. But if you have the possibility to try you certainly should, because it seems not to have bad side effects. On the other hand depending where you live it can be difficult to find a hospital with experience in this kind of treatment. For your cancer there is a dutch study (Franckena M et al., Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2009 Jan 1;73(1):242-50) investigating the effect of hyperthermia in combination to radiation. You can ask your doctor about it.
I will have my first hyperthermia session (in combination with doxil/caelyx,ovarian cancer) in 2 weeks. I will tell you about the experience and later -hopefully- about an effect(?).
I can understand that you dont accept when you are told that there is a certain number of monthes left! Thats only statistics which means it is true but it has nothing to do with your special case. No one knows what your specific tumor is doing. I am not an expert, but as a patient with poor prognosis, I was also looking for a treatment options that might improve results. Hyperthermia is promising for several tumors when added to either chemo or radiotherapia. But so far it is not more than just promising. But if you have the possibility to try you certainly should, because it seems not to have bad side effects. On the other hand depending where you live it can be difficult to find a hospital with experience in this kind of treatment. For your cancer there is a dutch study (Franckena M et al., Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2009 Jan 1;73(1):242-50) investigating the effect of hyperthermia in combination to radiation. You can ask your doctor about it.
I will have my first hyperthermia session (in combination with doxil/caelyx,ovarian cancer) in 2 weeks. I will tell you about the experience and later -hopefully- about an effect(?).
Hi Donna1980x,
I don't know anything about the treatment you asked about but I just wanted to tell you I'm so sorry to hear about your dx. That is so sad and scary to think that you are so young to be going through this already! Just know that there are a lot of wonderful people on this site that will be your rock when you need them to be. I'd personally continue to look as well and would try anything that would be open for me to do so. Are there clinical trials held in your area or surrounding areas that you could go to? What about talking to another oncologist about other treatment options?
Jassi
I don't know anything about the treatment you asked about but I just wanted to tell you I'm so sorry to hear about your dx. That is so sad and scary to think that you are so young to be going through this already! Just know that there are a lot of wonderful people on this site that will be your rock when you need them to be. I'd personally continue to look as well and would try anything that would be open for me to do so. Are there clinical trials held in your area or surrounding areas that you could go to? What about talking to another oncologist about other treatment options?
Jassi
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