Anyone else have Anal cancer: What treatments did you have?

I was diagnosed with squamous cell rectal cancer which is treated like anal cancer. I did the Nigri protocol which was 30 radiation and chemo- mitomycin and fu-5 which was a four dat drip at the start of weeks one and five. Some advice: make sure you are putting the ointments on early and often. If your oncologist has not recommended some, please ask. Get “period” underpants, they will help with leakage. Drink lots of water, with electrolytes and as much protein as you can. Let your medical team know everything, no matter how trivial. Everything will be fine, I am praying and cheering for you.

Is there anyone that shall help me to understand why the - CEA- reference values between rectal and colorectal differ so much?

would add one more thing got your list hopenjoy2024.
if you can get one a bidet is very helpful. there are cold water ones that just attach under your toilet seat as well as battery operated ones (good to carry with you) The warm water ones require electricity to be available.
I have both the cold water one in one bathroom and a warm one in the other.
I regularly use both. You get used to the cold one. not an issue.
before I had either I used a sitz bath regularly. It was not as painful as I've heard from others, but I was careful to keep Lidocaine cream handy and not wipe hard with toilet paper.
adult pull ups for nighttime use are also a good thing to have handy.
Keeping positive thoughts.

Not 100% sure, but it may be that in general, anal cancer is squamous cells and rectal cancer is adenocarcinoma. See https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5224838/. For me I had a large tumor in the rectum and the initial colonoscopy indicated a small polyp in my anus as well. The histology indicated squamous cells. The oncologist had me retested because the treatment is very different and she wanted to make sure they did not get the sample from the polyp- the tumor and polyp were not adjacent and separate.

There is a new trial with an immunotherapy drug dostarlimab, drug maker GSK, trial performed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer- instead of using standard treatment, chemo, radiation, surgery, it proved to be successful with getting rid of tumors-
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2404512
from a New York Times article, 4/27/2025:
"It is approved as a treatment for uterine cancers with mismatch repair mutations and is included in clinical guidelines for the treatment of rectal cancer, based on an earlier small study."

the article may be behind a paywall/subscribers
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/health/cancer-immunotherapy-solid-tumors.html

Cannot read due to pay wall, but if it is for rectal cancer, that is not the same thing as anal cancer. Two different causes.

Bidet was a lifesaver!

@samclembeau, good point, the drug was tested on rectal cancer tumors not anal cancer - so the info here does not help with the posted question

Hi @gabyivonne17, I just read your post regarding anal cancer. In April and May of this year, I received radiation and chemotherapy for anal cancer. I am 63 y.o. and also have Systemic Lupus. Reading your post felt like a was reading about myself. It’s been a rough ride, and still is. Thanks for sharing your story. It is very enlightening and encouraging.

Oh wow same situation here! I thought this was so unusual. Found out in Colonoscopy early tho had a polyp with squamous cell carcinoma but the Surgeon was afraid if he did surgery he could have accidentally cut my muscle in my anus because the polyp with cancer on it was on a muscle. If he accidentally cut that muscle I wb incontinent, so they decided to treat it like anal cancer. I had 28 treatments of radiation and 28 days of chemo pills didn’t notice any problems til the 24th treatment started feeling a lil burning by the 25 th full blown irritation! I have 3 more treatments and want to quit! It’s so painful to use the restroom, some bleeding ! Didn’t expect this at all! It hurts so bad! I wish I had started the cream early on. I said I’m going to mention to the Dr they should recommend to their patients, as I think it wb beneficial! It was too risky cutting the polyp out, but sometimes I wish I should have just done that and trusted God! I was happy to see your comment, as I thought I was the only one ! May God continue to bless you!