stage 4 and 32 years old

[Guest guest]

Hi all!

I have been reading posts on the board for many many months, lately I

was devastated to hear of 's passing, he was such an amazing

person. I know how much all of you loved him, we will all miss him!I

never met him but like you all said it was like we knew him.

I thought I will introduce myself and be more involved in this board

from now on. My husband was diagnosed 1 year ago with stage 4 colon

cancer, his metastasis are in the lympnodes located next to the

pancreas. He is 32 years old. The lympnodes have a name but I can't

remember it right now. His lungs and liver seem clear. His is stage 4

because the mets are distant. Last week we got some bad news, his

second chemo protocol failed too. He did cpt11 and 5 FU to begin with

and when that stopped working he did Oxaliplatin and 5FU. Last week

we saw some growth so we are considering entering a phase 1 trial of

a drug called E7070. He is doing very well and works full time

regardless of any discomfort he might have some times. We have two

small daughters, age 4 and nearly 2. This year has been very

difficult but we are giving it all we've got.

If any of you have any success stories, any advice and new drugs you

know of please let me know. Above all your support is mostly

appreciated.

Thank you so much in advance!

(Bjarne's wife)

[Guest guest]

Erbitux and Avistan are the 2 new chemos coming hopefully in Feb. Perhaps

they will offer more options.

Narice

[Guest guest]

Hello ,

My name is Ken and I'm 33 years old. I was diagnosed with Stage IV

rectal cancer in August 2003. I had mets to two abdominal lymph nodes,

I can tell you that the Doctors had initially told me that surgery on

my primary rectal tumor was unlikely due to the mets. After 7 cycles

of CPT-11/5-FU/LV I no longer have any mets (confirmed with combo

CT/PET scan). I had two local nodes that looked suspicious; those

were eradicated as well and my primary tumor is showing minimal

uptake according to the scans. If I was diagnosed again today I would

be a Stage II. You have the right attitude, don't give up hope. I am

doing radiation now to further shrink the primary rectal tumor

further so

that my surgery in March will be less invasive. I too have a little

boy at home (11 months old). I hope that your husband's lymph nodes

will respond to some sort of chemo and/or trial. Have you talked to

any surgeon about removing the lymph nodes? There are some aggresive

surgeons willing to do such operations. Please feel free to contact

me as our situations sound very similar. No Surrender!

Cheers,

Ken

> Hi all!

> I have been reading posts on the board for many many months, lately

I

> was devastated to hear of 's passing, he was such an amazing

> person. I know how much all of you loved him, we will all miss him!

I

> never met him but like you all said it was like we knew him.

>

> I thought I will introduce myself and be more involved in this

board

> from now on. My husband was diagnosed 1 year ago with stage 4 colon

> cancer, his metastasis are in the lympnodes located next to the

> pancreas. He is 32 years old. The lympnodes have a name but I can't

> remember it right now. His lungs and liver seem clear. His is stage

4

> because the mets are distant. Last week we got some bad news, his

> second chemo protocol failed too. He did cpt11 and 5 FU to begin

with

> and when that stopped working he did Oxaliplatin and 5FU. Last week

> we saw some growth so we are considering entering a phase 1 trial

of

> a drug called E7070. He is doing very well and works full time

> regardless of any discomfort he might have some times. We have two

> small daughters, age 4 and nearly 2. This year has been very

> difficult but we are giving it all we've got.

> If any of you have any success stories, any advice and new drugs

you

> know of please let me know. Above all your support is mostly

> appreciated.

> Thank you so much in advance!

> (Bjarne's wife)

[Guest guest]

Ken,

Thank you for your very positive response, oh you must be so happy

with your results, it is just great! I remember reading one of your

mails way back when you were diagnosed and I told my husband about

you. Unfortunately we have not been able to shrink the lymphnodes

with chemo, they always shrink to begin with for about 20% and then

they stay stable. Now we are looking for this new trial and we are

hoping that we can shrink them quite a bit more. If you saw my

husband today you could never tell that he is sick, he works full

time and is a great husband and father. They operated on his colon

tumor and took out 17 lympnodes from near by. So now what he has left

is the abdominal ones but they are quite a few of them and thats why

they are not talking surgery! But we have Dr Sugarbaker in mind

always!

Ken keep up the good work, you wife and son must be so happy you are

beating this. My husband also feels that he will come through!

You both are fighting this with everything you have got.

[Guest guest]

Kaye,

Oh you have been through so much but you sound like you are very

strong and fighting hard. I hope soon you will get some good changes

in your body and things will start looking better. There are so many

new drugs coming out for colorectal cancer that it gives me so much

hope. We just need a little bit of time right.

Thank you for your message and your kind words. Everybody here is

just amazing.

Take good care Kaye