Has anyone decided not to have surgery after the first round of chemo?

@earle

Hi,

Did you have any treatments? My dad is 85 and is scared of the radiation and chemo treatments. He is opting for hospice. But with the VA he can also have treatments so I am wondering how you tolerated either of those. Surgery is not an option for him because he is 85.

Joe, I had 5.5 weeks of radiation at MD Anderson. 4.5 weeks were proton, because of pent-up demand, their machine having been down for maintenance. I also had three weekly sessions chemo, but I reacted badly to the third session, so we terminated those. Mine was squamous, stage III, confined to the esophagus. I was offered but declined surgery, mainly because of age and the possible length of time it could take to rehab from it. If your dad is considering hospice, his diagnosis must be quite different from mine...

@mrgvw Hi Gary, I'd like to join a Zoom call if they are still happening. I'd love to talk to some people who have or are going through this cancer. Newly diagnosed. My username is rdt. Thanks Todd.

@joe6000, I hope you saw @earle's helpful post.

Joe, what did your father decide? Has he chosen to try treatment?

@earle
He was diagnosed as Stage 2. Cancer is at the junction between esophagus and stomach.
He was offered 5 weeks of radiation with weekly chemo.
It just sounded like too much. He has other complications asbestos damage to his lungs and diabetes.
He feels pretty well right now so he’s chosen no treatment and hospice care was also offered.

@joe6000 I'm terribly afraid that is a decision he'll regret. Is he showing signs of depression, because that surrender sounds to me like it's born out of that. My cancer was different, squamous, about 1/3 of the way down. But mine was more advanced - Stage III+. (I forget the rest, but the "+" was because of a "suspicious" distant lymph node, which turned out to be nothing, so really just III.) It also was completely confined to the esophagus. It sounds like he has an excellent shot at a complete cure. I had 5.5 weeks of radiation - one of IMRT, because their proton machine was backed up owing to a down period of maintenance, and 4.5 weeks of proton. I had 3 weeks of chemo before having a bad reaction to one of the drugs. My esophagus and lymph nodes are, as far as they can tell, cancer-free now. I do have a tiny spot which fluoresces under PET far over in my left lung, which they do not believe is cancer. Nevertheless, it dictates more frequent PETs and monitoring. I don't regret one moment of my treatment. From age, I have comorbidities also. I have left hip replacement scheduled for 12/16, my 86th birthday, for example. (Indirectly the way my cancer was discovered.) I know that Hospice's guidelines are much more lenient than they used to be (formerly 6 month to probable termination), but I'm frankly surprised it was offered in his case. He will not feel "pretty well" towards the end. My ex-wife passed from adeno in exactly your dad's spot and it was pretty bad towards the end. I think you should at least urge him to see a therapist. In my case, my "hometown" oncologist, also a close friend, looked me in the eye and said "Earle, you can whip this!" Those words have stuck with me, because he's not the type to blow smoke. It may be that all your dad needs is a third party delivering a similar declaration to him. Don't give this up yet!

@mrgvw I am curious about your zoom call. My mother was diagnosed at age 70 very healthy otherwise, and considering not doing surgery due to fear of complications and decrease quality of like afterwards. I think it would be helpful to hear and discuss with others who have walked this path!

@haileybdl

Here you go. We've done about 450 of these Zoom calls with many of us EC and Esophagectomy patients stopping in from all over the world. These call times NEVER change, as follow:

Sundays 9am Eastern
Wednesdays 6pm Eastern

Here's the link.
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/4550284795

@haileybdl I’m 6wks post surgery. My situation was more complicated because I had a gastric-bypass 20 years ago. I am also 70 in relatively good health prior to cancer diagnosis last July. I’ve had 4 rounds of FLOT and immunotherapy. The chemo treatments were effective BUT the surgery probably saved my life. I was T3N1M0. They removed the tumor most of my esophagus/gj. The doctors were convinced that they could find my original stomach and reattach it as my new esophagus. Yes surgery is hard. Very hard. But my family wanted a fight. Side effects for me were minimal. My surgery was minimally invasive laparoscopic. I have 15 little holes in my abdomen and side but they are almost all healed. I had no pain. Never took the Rx for pain. Everyone is different don’t give up because of fear or worse the anticipated what ifs.