Stage 3a - chemo before surgery

[Jonthreep]

Hello,

My mum was just diagnosed with stage 3a ovarian cancer during a hysterectomy op (which was aborted). They removed the right ovary and Fallopian tube, but the tumour on the left ovary is stuck to the bowel and they need to give her a lot of chemo to (hopefully) shrink it before going ahead (again) with full hysterectomy.

They plan to put her on Carboplatin and Taxol in 3 weeks. Should i be worried about the delay?They have also said that the lymph nodes in the
abdomen "have been affected" and that the cancer is "poorly differentiated" but this means it is likely to respond very well to chemo. How hopeful can I be? I'm very worried. Should we get a second opinion?

Many thanks

Jon

[dian07]

I am sorry you and your mom are going through all this.......it's hard and it's scary.  Shrinking the tumor before surgery is not an unusual situation.  It is unfortunate but true....staging can only be done after biopsies are sent to pathology and that is done during surgery.
It is very important your mom has a gyn/oncologist perform her surgery......since she is being scheduled for chemotherapy I am hoping you already have seen one.  I wish you both the best, and I hope you get the miracles you seek in this New Year.
Peace.
dian

[sad919]

Hi Jon.  i am new to this forum and after reading your comment above, it has just given me some insight about my mum's condition.  She was just diagnosed in December 2010 early last month and must go for a couple treatments of chemo first  to shrink the tumor before they do surgery on her.  I have read a lot of posts and many of writers know their sages of cancer. Can the Doctor determine this based on the scans only?

[jr1971]

Jon

There are too many of us Jon's on here.....FYI - My wife was also diagnosed as stage 3a and with a poorly differentiated tumour. Do you know what type of tumour your Mum has (Serous, Mucinous etc.)? This is an important thing to know when it comes to response to treatment.

One thing I would be concerned about in your description is that you said that the stage had been given as 3a yet they also said that the Lymph nodes had been affected. Did they take any biopsy of the Lymph node and was this how they came to this conclusion or was it just an observation by a Gynecologist?

The reason I ask is that if there is evidence of disease in the Lymph node then the stage would not be 3a but 3c. I don't mean to worry you even more that you already are but I would want to discuss with her Doctors about how they decided upon this staging conclusion. I would want to know that an experienced Gyn/Oncologist had done the staging and that any future surgery was done by an experiences Gyn/Onc surgeon.

One thing to bear in mind is that there are some Doctors who don't agree that evidence of disease in the Lymph Node should be a reason for a Stage 3c diagnosis. There is some evidence that women who are stage 3c due to Lymph Node involvement only do rather better than other stage 3c patients.

From your spelling of "Mum" I am guessing you are either in the UK or Australia. I am in the UK so if you want to contact me directly I can help you with our experiences of treatment and care here. Just click on my name in the header to this post and send me a note.

Regards and best of luck to you and your mum.

Jon

[Jonthreep]

Thankyou

[marie3B]

Since she needs to recover from the surgery and get stronger, the wait is necessary.  Most of us had to wait before chemo.  My wait was 5 or 6 weeks.  I wish her a fast recovery and an easy time on chemo.  Marie

[gls2824]

Hi Jon.  Sorry you have to be here, but you will find the people here will have great information for you.

A second opinion is never a bad idea.  And I wouldn't worry about the delay, especially since she will be going through chemo during that time which hopefully will arrest the spread of the disease while they shrink the tumor.

I'm sure you will get answers from those who have more information about this than I do.  Just hang in there!