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Ovarian Cancer Reoccurance
My mother in law was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 23 months ago.
She underwent surgery and had a full hyster. and they said they got
everything that they could. Then she underwent chemo. Her CA125
has continually gone up from a 4 to a 12 to a 20. She had an
MRI done Friday in Georgia and the nurse called to say that it did not look good and that it had worsened. Instead of asking for the doctor, she just accepted this and then called her GYN, ONC in Florida for an appt. We are trying to get her doctor in GA to meet with us to explain the MRI b/c the FL doctor can't see her until May 10. Help! My mother in law was such a trooper through all of this, never getting sick from chemo and always having a positive attitude. Now she is talking about her will and other preparations.
We knew ovarian cancer usually comes back within the first 2 years, but because she had stage 3 and had sone so well---we believed it was a miracle. What will happen next? Should we look for alternatives or even trials?
She underwent surgery and had a full hyster. and they said they got
everything that they could. Then she underwent chemo. Her CA125
has continually gone up from a 4 to a 12 to a 20. She had an
MRI done Friday in Georgia and the nurse called to say that it did not look good and that it had worsened. Instead of asking for the doctor, she just accepted this and then called her GYN, ONC in Florida for an appt. We are trying to get her doctor in GA to meet with us to explain the MRI b/c the FL doctor can't see her until May 10. Help! My mother in law was such a trooper through all of this, never getting sick from chemo and always having a positive attitude. Now she is talking about her will and other preparations.
We knew ovarian cancer usually comes back within the first 2 years, but because she had stage 3 and had sone so well---we believed it was a miracle. What will happen next? Should we look for alternatives or even trials?
My friend has just been diagnosed w/ ovarian cancer. Her symptoms have included swelling in the abodomen, nausea and vommiting, feeling tired and feeling of being full when she eats just a little.Just last saturday she started to bleed from her rectum and this is when she went to the doctor. Her other symptoms came on just w/i the past 2 weeks. She has just recently had back surgery to remove a disc that had decenegrated and has continued to have a numb or tingle in leg/foot. Her doctor that performed her back surgery said that it would go away in time. (Her surgery was Nov. 2003). The left leg is the one that bothers her and it is her left ovary that they have found the mass in. Her leg has been this way for around 2 years or so. I went to the med line site that had a video of ovarian cancer and it said that it could be pushing on the nerve going down to her leg. I have talked w/ another lady that has had ovarian cancer surgery and the symptoms are the same as Kim's except her leg/foot problem. She had surgery this past January and finished Chemo in March this year and the doctor said she was cancer free. She said that her tumor was called a yolk sac tumor and that her's was growing fast and was the size of a volleyball when they removed it. My friend's, as of this past monday was the size of a canteloupe and is growing really fast. Are there other tumors in the ovaries that grow as fast? Her obgyn doctor has referred her to a surgeon, which she will see this Wednesday. My concern's are this: 1) Has this been in her for the 2+ years and causing the discomfort in her leg/foot and is this what caused her disc to blow? 2) Her CA-125 level is 2000. Can the doctor determine from this what stage she is in? I am a concerned friend and need to know if anyone can shed some light. The waiting is what is so bad.
A recurrence of 'Ovarian' cancer following full hysterectomy of course isn't going to be 'ovarian' as you have had them removed. However it is usually monitored by the same CA125 marker.
My mother had stage 3 and had the same treatment you mention (hyster then 6 treatments of taxol/carbo). All was well for about 2 years and then her CA125 levels rocketed and MRI showed that she had developed lymphatic cancer from metastases of the ovarian cancer to nodes around her abdomen.
She went back on taxol/carbo treatment for another 6 goes, and CA125 levels had been brought down to 4 and tumour development stopped.
We are presently awaiting test results, as she stopped chemo 4 months ago and her test from 6 weeks ago came up as a CA125 of 11 (not a high level, but an increase). She had another test this week, so we are hoping things have leveled out.
Her lymphatic cancer is not curable, but it is treatable/manageable, so we will just keep on working at it. One thing of note though, is that she is feeling pretty much 'fit and well' and her 'recurrence' responded very well to treatment.. !!
My mother had stage 3 and had the same treatment you mention (hyster then 6 treatments of taxol/carbo). All was well for about 2 years and then her CA125 levels rocketed and MRI showed that she had developed lymphatic cancer from metastases of the ovarian cancer to nodes around her abdomen.
She went back on taxol/carbo treatment for another 6 goes, and CA125 levels had been brought down to 4 and tumour development stopped.
We are presently awaiting test results, as she stopped chemo 4 months ago and her test from 6 weeks ago came up as a CA125 of 11 (not a high level, but an increase). She had another test this week, so we are hoping things have leveled out.
Her lymphatic cancer is not curable, but it is treatable/manageable, so we will just keep on working at it. One thing of note though, is that she is feeling pretty much 'fit and well' and her 'recurrence' responded very well to treatment.. !!
The Southwest Oncology Group (including MDAnderson, I'm sure) is doing a study with "Gleevec" -- a biologic substance. You could look into that but I'm pretty sure it's limited to the Southwest right now. Best wishes ....
Has anyone heard about some trials being done with stem cells? I read about them yesterday at the M D Anderson site. From what I read, I thought they take patients that have had ovarian cancer and it reoccurs--then harvest their stem cells, give them a huge dose of chemo in the hospital (6-9 weeks) and then give them the stem cells back to regenerate good cells. We still haven't heard back from the GA doctor. My MIL went to pick up her film and he was swamped and couldn't talk with her. This is unbelievable to me. How can a nurse just call with bad news and there is no follow-up until the next Dr's appt.
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