33yrs old Stage III-B NSCLC

DGallaway · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:16 am Post subject: 33yrs old Stage III-B NSCLC

[i]Hi Im new here, My husband was just diagnosed on jan 26 2006 with nsclc .....He is 33 yrs old.....We have 7 beautiful children ages 7 to 15. I know the doctors say the cure rate is only 20 to 30 percent at most, but I thought maybe someone in here would have some encouraging words for me, We found the tumor with a emergency room visit for chest pains he had had for about 5 days (cramps in the right side he said) The Doctors did xrays finding a large mass....Followed by cat scans mri's , biopsies, and pet scans verifying that it was indeed malignant, The mass size being 8 cm by 5 cm at it's largest point. No fluid on his lungs or distant metastisis, After pet scans we were told that he did have some activity in the lymph nodes. For days after being told he had cancer they were waiting on stains to come back ........everything was coming back negative but they assured us it was indeed cancer , They sent the biopsies to the mayo clinic and they ran their own stains on the samples .....to date we have only verbal news from mayo to our onocologist saying it is large cell cancer. He is healthy as a horse, eats anything he can get his hands on and has no symptoms other than a little chest pain sometimes. He started rads on monday of this week , he seems a little more tired than usual but not to an extreme, He starts chemo on monday the 21st running concurrently with the radiation, The doctors say at this point it is inoperable, although I have had others tell me to seriously check into that. The Doctors also say if a significant shrinkage occurs we can talk about surgery at that point. They have never gave us a time frame, they just said that his cure rate is 20 to 30 percent .......I hate to think that they are sugar coating everything and that we may have only weeks or months left with a wonderful husband and father......But I would rather know if that makes any sense......Any input any of you could give me would be greatly appreciated.......God love and protect you all
Donna, Jeremy & family[/i]

rlee · Site Admin Joined: 15 Jan 2006 Posts: 245

I am sorry to hear about your situation. Lung cancer is difficult to treat, but treatments are getting better. For more information about cancer consider going to the

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/lung
http://www.lungcancer.org/

These have basic information. Lung cancer is considered unresectable if it is stage IIIb or IV. So, I'm guessing it is probably IIIB. Yes, it is reasonable with someone who has IIIB to see if they respond to treatment and later become resectable. The long term survival of people with IIIB is not great, but every person is different and not just a number. However I would look at the mean survival of people in your situation to plan accordingly. When oncologists talk about cure, we mean 5 year survival without evidence of disease. Thus 20-30% is reasonable if your husband responds to treatment; however also remember that means 70-80% of people still have cancer and with lung cancer likely have passed away. Please discuss these with your medical team as everyone is different.

RLee, MD
_________________
RLee, MD

Any information provided is NOT intended to provide specific medical advice to users but rather to provide users with information to help them better understand their health condition and related care. All readers are strongly encouraged to consult with a qualified physician for answers to their personal medical questions.

keithwayne204 · New User Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 3

hi there i have hope for you ask his doctors if he can take a chemo called
Alimita its verry good iam 36 yrs old and have had small cell for 2 yrs thy gave me a 2 to 3 yrs but my doctor told me that the cancer is shrinking verry fast the chemo only last's for 10 minutes sometimes faster its new and a verry good chemo also iam on a study called bf1120 so far the results are great i shall paray for you cause this is a verry ahrd thing to go through and keep your faith and his thats so important

Jennifer16628 · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:31 pm Post subject: Re: 33yrs old Stage III-B NSCLC

To those that have posted .... I am a 30 year old female and have had chest pains...sharp that have come and gone...usually 30 minutes of 'grabbing' sharp pains - they have lasted for several days also. I talked to the doctor and she said that if it was anything serious they would not go away (she did not feel it was necessary to run any tests). I was just wondering what your symptoms were like. I grew up with both parents smoking in the home and then I smoked until I was 24. I have my doubts especially since my mother has just been told she has less than 8 weeks life expectancy with stage 4 lung cancer (NSC) at 53 years old. Thank you for any information.

rlee · Site Admin Joined: 15 Jan 2006 Posts: 245

Jennifer,
May I suggest starting a new post regarding your symptoms? If you are concerned about cancer, I would suggest talking with your medical doctor for evaluation to determine the cause of the pain - many possibilities exist including many non-cancer related ones.

RLee, MD
_________________
RLee, MD

Any information provided is NOT intended to provide specific medical advice to users but rather to provide users with information to help them better understand their health condition and related care. All readers are strongly encouraged to consult with a qualified physician for answers to their personal medical questions.

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