I have beat the odds with rectal cancer...for now at least

I posted this back on June 8 in the thread about the new rectal cancer drug that had astounding results:

quote:

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I have rectal cancer and finished a 28 day treatment of chemoradiation four weeks ago. I'm scheduled for surgery on June 23. Robotic surgery that will require a temporary colonoscopy bag, with a planned reversal surgery about 8 weeks later.

When I first went to the corectal surgeon and he said that the chemoradiation treatment pre-surgery would hopefully shrink the tumor, making surgery easier and less chance of complications. I specifically asked him if it was possible that the chemoradiation would completely shrink the tumor and make surgery unnecessary. He told me that it was very unlikely that the tumor would completely disappear.

I went last week for a final MRI before surgery and I got the radiologist report and it states: "The tumor has disappeared and is undetectable. No adjacent lymph nodes involvement is detected".

So it seems that I may have beat the odds and could enter "Watch and Wait" treatment, getting MRI and blood work done every 3 months to monitor any recurrence.

I have an appointment with the surgeon Friday and I'm anxious to see what his response to the MRI will be. I bet he will still say surgery us needed. If he says that, I will get a second opinion from another surgeon. Another surgeon not in any way connected to my current surgeon or his hospital. I can't help but feeling that the surgeon has a financial stake in surgery that could effect his judgement.

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I went to the appointment with my surgeon and he agreed that the MRI appears to show that the tumor has disappeared. He sent my MRI record to some radiologist that is regarded as an expert on MRIs of the colon and rectum. And that radiologist concurred that the tumor had disappeared and was was no longer detectable.

The surgeon canceled the surgery scheduled for the 23rd and scheduled me for a colonoscopy because he wanted to actually see the location where the tumor used to be and also to take some tissue samples to be biopsies. We did that last week and the location where the tumor was located just showed a thin white scar.

And more importantly, the three tissue samples he took all tested as benign, no cancer cells detected.

The surgeon told me that the results I have only happens in about 5% of patients that undergo the pre-surgery chemoradiation.

So, thankfully, I don't require the surgery, but I will have to go every 3 months for an MRI and blood work, and every 6 months for a colonoscopy, to see if there is a recurrence. But for now it is in remission.

He said that he has another patient that had the same results as I have and that patient is 3 years out with no recurrence. I'm hoping for the same results.

Thanks to those that offered prayers and well wishes to me in that original thread.