I have read so many of the posts from Dr. West about Chemo/Radiation, including the one where it was determined that doing consolidation chemo after the initial 6 -7 weeks of chemo/rad. really only increased the side effects but didn't really add any additl. benefit to killing the cancer. BUT, I am still confused.
Does this finding mean no additional chemo only for directly after the chemo/radiation or no additl. chemo EVER - meaning the patient would get no more treatment ever after the chemo/rad. ? (that doesn't seem likely to me so that's why I'm asking)
Ie. if a patient has chemo/radiation for 2 rounds of chemo (cisplatin and etoposide) concurrent with 33 days of radiation (59 Gray) --- then what happens with regard to treatment after that, if surgery not possible. Hopefully the chemo/rad shrank it significantly, but then what next and when?
Reply # - November 19, 2015, 06:33 AM
Hi healmymom,
Hi healmymom,
Perhaps you've seen that Dr. West has described his take on consolidation treatment in this way:
"My strategy is to be selective in how I approach patients with locally advanced NSCLC, favoring consolidation chemotherapy for the patients who I feel are likely to tolerate a more rigorous treatment, especially if they have unfavorable features of their cancer (larger tumor, poorly differentiated, etc.), but the absence of any proven benefit for the “more is better” concept makes me very comfortable stopping after completing the core 7 weeks of chemo/radiation for patients who I suspect are more likely to be harmed than helped by additional treatment without evidence of a survival benefit." - http://cancergrace.org/lung/2015/07/20/many-faces-of-stage-iii/#more-16…
It's not that chemo would never be used after the initial chemo/radiation. If consolidation therapy isn't used, then you're most likely looking at keeping a close eye on the remaining cancer, restarting some form of systemic therapy when progression becomes apparent.
JimC
Forum moderator
Reply # - November 20, 2015, 11:17 PM
thanks for your response, Jim
thanks for your response, Jim. I think your last paragraph is what I was hoping to hear. It makes sense not to do any consolidation chemo right after chemo/rad. -- but once progression is seen, it would be disheartening to the patient to not try any other further type of treatment (mainly chemo).