Colorectal cancer Surgery: Watch and Wait

Posted by kiva @kiva, Sep 17, 2022

A 30 year old female patient, stage III and T4b with colorectal cancer (cancer cells also in vagina) has neoadjuvant chemo to shrink the tumor for surgery. The treatment didn’t work. Additional chemo and radiation therapy was given for about 2-3 months to stall growth to prepare for surgery.
Biopsies and PET scans now show no cancer cells.
The surgeon is recommending WW - watch and wait for 6 weeks…stressing the surgery is life altering and she is “so young.” Surgeon says he will do the surgery if she wants, but pushes for waiting.
Has anyone ever been advised to take this approach? Is it possible she could be “cancer free.”
Biopsies also show the cancer cells have turned “mucinous” according to the surgeon, but he states there are no cancer cells. Can this be?
Thanks in advance

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billbills | @daledales | 3 days ago

I had short course radiation followed by 5 rounds of oxiplatin injections, between injections I took capcitabine pills

branckerd | @branckerd | 3 days ago

I had 2 chemo treatments and did not do well My body couldn’t handle so went off had no radiation I had 3 surgeries in 2 years after well from last one I take xeloda which has done well so far Has shrunk my nodules so far Been on for 5 months

myjiggers1 | @myjiggers1 | 1 day ago

Hi 🙂 I am sorry about her diagnosis ❤️ I had stage 3c pT4aN2b pMMR Right side colon cancer in August of 2023. 43 nodes taken 8 were infected with it going into my peritonium. I had resection surgery and then 12 rounds of Folfox, could only handle 2 rounds with oxaliplatin due to allergic reaction. Then we did wait and see with CT scans every 3 months, which at one point showed some nodule growth in my lungs so we switched to 6 weeks to see if they continued. However the CT scans did not go low enough and we found 8 months later (November 2024)I had a growth in my vaginal cuff ( hysterectomy closure). I am now on Folfiri, had radiation to stop bleeding in vaginal area, and will be adding Avastin.

I would say wait and see is a good idea, if she did not have right side colon cancer. I would be cautiously optimistic knowing they should be taking Full body CT or PET scans every 6 to 8 weeks. If it was in her lymphatic system it really is a guessing game because as it was described to me is the lymphatic system is like a thruway with an easy pass. Once it gets on the thruway it could go anywhere. Its not necessarily if it will come back, but when. If she has left sided colon its worth running a deeper test on the biopsy taken for markers to see if immunotherapy would work. Right sided however is super aggressive and it didn’t qualify me. Keep us updated yes? I will add her to my prayers!!! There is always hope! Have faith. I believe thru Christ all things are possible. If you are a believer you know this. If not I hope one day you will. ❤️