Cancer free w/ no enlargements - 1261589

Hello Bill and Shirley. I hate to hear that for your sake but I must confess my husband has a scan in a couple of weeks that will be a year and 1/2 since treatment stopped and of course I can't help but think of his situation reading this.

Mediastinal nodes are usually a tipping point between cure and not but I don't understand well enough in the context you've described. However chemo alone isn't thought to be curative on its own.

Edited: It appears I misread your explanation of Shirley's treatment so I've edited out the part that's wrong. I'm very sorry about that. However Drs West and Ramchandran's posts are the very reason I used Grace in the first place. They catch our mistakes. Janine

I'll ask a doctor to comment on your post.

All best,
Janine

Actually, I'd say that it sounds like you were treated with curative intent with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation, which is reasonable if the extent of the disease is encompassed as what would still be called "locally advanced" (stage III) NSCLC. In such a case, there isn't a clear value in continuing treatment indefinitely, and there would be a real risk of a detrimental effect. I think most experts would not favor ongoing treatment in the absence of identified metastatic disease. It may be very worthwhile getting a second opinion to clarify whether this unorthodox approach makes good sense based on the specifics of your case that we may not know.

Good luck.

-Dr. West

Dear Bill and Shirley,

I concur with Dr. West. At this time I believe you were treated for cure with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. Active surveillance is important, but I do not see a goal for indefinite treatment at this time. There is a clear toxicity burden here with both of these therapies as well that can be significant.

A 2nd opinion is also always a good idea in these cases.

With warm regards,

Dr. Kavitha Ramchandran