intestinal tumour

[finkaz]

my mum has been told she has ovarian cancer with a intestinal tumour (results from biopsy due tommorow) this tumour is giving her real problems she is suffering from a lot of pain, nausea and vomiting, we keep taking her in and the hospital keeps sending her home , also stomach is very bloated hospital seem to me to be dragging their feet about this tumour and getting the nausea stabilised apparently they are going to do chemo first and surgery second, any body else had experience of ovca with intestinal tumours/problems?

[Barney22]

Hello finkaz - I had tumours (small) on my mesentry (think that's the right spelling) - that's a kind of covering on the small intestine, but it wasn't within the intestine itself I don't think.  They couldn't remove it through surgery because of it's position and relied on chemo to kill it off.  This did work well initially and I felt pretty well after the chemo if that helps your mother.  As part of my relapse 7 months later the cells there have become cancerous again and 2nd line chemo will be used from this week to try to remove the 'traces' and others on my colon (large intestine or bowel).  All the different names for the organs make it confusing I think.  I do hope the chemo works well for your mother.  The link between ovarian cancer and the colon/bowel is well acknowledged and here the surgeons are trained in both areas.  Let us know how things go.

[Barney22]

I should have asked - did they specify the small intestime or large one (colon/bowel)?  Talking to other women at the clinic I know some who had tumours successfully removed from the colon at the same time as hyterectomies so it is fairly common I think.   Part of the problem with so many of our late ovca diagnoses is that the cancer has spread to other areas like the intestines or liver or stomach, but the clinicians are well able to deal with that in most cases.  Good luck.

[finkaz]

thanks, got to wait two weeks for chemo to start, no talk of any surgery yet, most women who have posted seem to be given a hysterectomy straight away.  Also looking into combining the chemo with hyperthermia treatment anybody any experience of it we are in the uk.

[Barney22]

Hello finkaz - I'm in the UK too!  Pity we don't have a similar site over here, although it's very interesting to read how women are treated differently in other countries.  I haven't experienced hypothermia but have read about it - my slight understanding is that there is some evidence that heating the body? or chemo solution?  makes it work more effectively - fairly new approach I think.  Hypothermia  makes you think of cooling so I was quite surprised.  Re having the surgery or chemo first I believe it is quite common to have some chemo before surgery as it aims to shrink the tumour(s) and thus make surgery more effective, particularly where other organs are involved.  I've met a number of women who had this.  I had 4 rounds of chemo after inital surgery, then another op to remove my omentum which was stuck to the colon and couldn't be taken out the first time.  This worked well and I then had the remaining 2 chemo cycles - another method called interval debulking (hilarious name to non-medics!).  Best of luck to you and your mother - it's a very difficult time I know.
Jenny

[finkaz]

hi barney , good to be in touch with someone in the uk.  Hyperthermia is heating the whole body or localised to a tumour.  There is strong evidence that cancer cells respond well to heat and are damaged at temps lower than normal body cells.  Used in conjunction with chem and radiotherapy it optimises the medical treatment there is a lot of info around on this .  I was also told this by cancer research uk and the gyn onc also said that scientifically it is very interesting but would commit no further.

[finkaz]

my mum is very bloated she looks about 6 months pregnant, is very short of breath, i thought this was due to fluid but her scan shows no fluid in the abdominal cavity any ideas?