Just diagnosed: Surgery not an option, looking for hope

Thanks for all the responses. I enjoy reading about the experiences of others. It does inspire me and gives me hope. I have an appointment for another opinion/possible treatment options at MD Anderson in Houston in March. They only do in person appointments (I live in Indiana) so I will have to go there, but spring is a great time to go to Texas. I lived in Beaumont, TX, for about 5 years during Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent hurricane when I decided I needed to relocate to Indiana for better weather. I am able to enjoy all four seasons here which is fantastic for my state of mind. Before my last scheduled maintenance chemo, it was discovered that I had a lung infection so I was started on antibiotics and the chemo infusion was cancelled. I go in tomorrow for lab, oncology appointment AND infusion on the same day! So thankful for that change in schedule so that means only two days of appointments instead of three like it had been previously.

In answer to some questions above, I have had my tumor genotyped, and it is nothing that can benefit from targeted therapy as the microsatellite instability is low. I was told by the nurse at MD Anderson that their CT scan equipment is much more sensitive and can pick up things that others do not. He also told me that many times cancer is misdiagnosed (?) and it is actually some other type of disorder, virus or cellular disease. Not sure that is the case, so I will find out more in March. He also said there are other possible treatment options, so I'm hoping for positive news there.

I'm in a better state of mind today than I was when I wrote the previous update. I still feel like I'm in limbo when it comes to end of life planning. I don't feel it's urgent to get things in order completely, but it is in the back of my mind. I know many people who die in accidents that don't have any thoughts about their life ending, so in that way I do feel fortunate.

Thank you for your support and encouragement. Your strength and positive attitudes are definitely inspiring to me and hopefully to others at the same time.

Vernon Zigler

Nobiletin (NOB) is a flavonoid derived from citrus peel
NOB was found to have anti-tumor efficacy. The present studies on the anti-tumor mechanism of NOB mainly focus on inhibiting the growth and proliferation of tumor cells, inducing accelerated apoptosis of tumor cells, inhibiting metastasis of tumor cells, inhibiting tumor angiogenesis, and regulating the tumor cell cycle and protein expression (Goh et al., 2019). NOB can inhibit human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell growth and apoptosis through the PARP-2/SIRT1/AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway (Zheng et al., 2019). NOB can regulate Src/FAK/STAT3 signaling, reduce VEGF production, and inhibit angiogenesis in breast cancer cells (Sp et al., 2017). Most recently, it has been shown that NOB can combine with chemotherapeutic drugs to enhance the sensitivity of chemotherapeutic drugs and play a synergistic anti-tumor effect. Li et al. (2019) investigated the efficacy of NOB on oxaliplatin using colorectal cancer cell lines.
They revealed that NOB increased the sensitivity of colorectal cancer cells to oxaliplatin chemotherapy through downregulation of the PI3K/protein kinase B (AKT)/mTOR pathway, and NOB promoted oxaliplatin-induced apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2024.1354809/full