Mesothelioma Treatment?

Monday evening was an eyeopener. I don't know whether the Doc I saw was an oncologist or a Radiologist but still he was a decent chap.

Apparently the mesothelioma was a whisper away from other organs and the worry of a microscope cell being left has now become a forward thought in the brain. I guess I shouldn't have put it far back in my subconscious but what else can we do.

We went through the reaction of Radiotherapy on the Drain sites and Tomotherapy right into the full area of the left half of my chest. I didn't realise that the radiation causes so much inflammation. I remember when I had it back in 2004 on the Drain Sites and it hurt like hell, infact the last day I had it I took severdol before I got on the table.

Tomotherapy is a beam that circles around your body, like a CT Scan and it can be programmed to miss certain organs, but its everyday for 6 weeks. It does cause side effects, your insides are still inflamed and obviously there is the tiredness.

They say that radiotherapy on Drain Sites doesn't prove whether it works or not, but considering I had no meso left in 2004 and regrowth in 2006, nothing crept along mine. I am determined to go ahead and get the sites done.

He needs a CT scan, firstly to check the depth and if I go Tomotherapy, to work out the angles etc, but also to make sure there is no new masses. This hit me as its 6 months, yes 6 calender months since the operation. Alot can happen in 6 months, usually that's the length of time we are given after diagnosis.

I was also informed that Tomotherapy will not kill off tumours, it can kill quite a lot but not the whole lot. 1cm holds something like 1 billion cancer cells. I was keeping tomo as a second option should it come back, but he said cryo would be recommended if it had come back.

Newcastle RVI are also looking at RFA for meso, although still in the discussion stage, this will clear out tumours upto 2cm, remember that is what I applied for first in Feb 2008. At least new ideas are now being considered.

Also James Cook has got a Tomopathy machine and will be using it on lung cancer as well. Dr Sugarbaker (USA Doc) recommends that tomopathy is used within 4 weeks after surgery. Sounds cruel to put someone through this major surgery then 6 weeks of further pain with radiation.

On a high note, if there is such a thing for anyone fighting cancer, a friend of mine is hopefully taking the plane to see Dr Abtin. She has small cell lung cancer and they are hoping to cryoablate the tumour. Things got held up as the CT Scan took weeks to get there and then it was pass worded and due to time difference poor Dr Abtin only got the password at 12.00 last night!

I am sure you all wish her luck on getting sorted.

As always, good luck to all of us fighting this.