Information on mucinous adenocarcinoma of the colon

Because I had prior abdominal
Surgeries, I wasn’t a great candidate for laporoscopic and or robotic (not enough space to move around). Open surgery was done. They don’t go through the rectum because my tumor was in sigmoid

Did they do that robictally through stomach or rectum . How are you doing now?

Md Anderson is in the town that I live in. It’s connected to a local hospital. My surgery was a bowel resection (removal of part of the sigmoid which is where the tumor was), removal of right ovary and cecum (resected the cecum) removal of appendix. The tumor had made everything gravitate towards my right side which is why he removed other areas.

What type of surgery did they do?

Did you live near md Anderson or travel

I was considered stage 2A. My tumor was removed with surgery and my oncologist presented me with two options. Watch and wait, or do 3 months of chemo. He said recent research showed that 3 months was as effective as the 6 that used to be the standard. He said chemo would lower my risk but left it up to me. I just wanted to do everything I possibly could to fight this and am the type of person to second guess myself. So I asked my oncologist what he would recommend to a family member and he said chemo so that’s what I did. I made it through almost half. I was worried at first when they recommended stopping, but I was very sick from it and my body couldn’t fight anything else that was going on. I have 100% faith in my oncologist and my team so felt confident following their recommendations.

I had my surgery at MD Anderson and my surgeon was Dr. Gimble. My oncologist is Dr Dragovich, head of oncology.

So you where just doing chemo as a precaution but had the option to not do it? Who is your doctor for colon that did surgery

Yes I had to discontinue after my second treatment. My body just couldn’t handle it. I think had I not developed an obstruction and ultimately another abscess, they may have considered changing dosage or switched to something else, but my oncologist said any benefit was far outweighed by the risk. Chemo was given as an option and I chose to try it because I wanted that extra layer of protection. I’ve been almost four years with NED. Praying that my upcoming colonoscopy will still be good. I have ulcerative colitis so I’m afraid a higher risk of cancer so thankfully have had annual colonoscopies for the last 10 years, and this will be my second one in 12 months.

Attempted? Did you stop

I believe this is what type of cancer I had. It also was in my sigmoid. I was stage 2 only because it grew outside the wall. I went through a resection (several areas) and attempted chemo (xeloda and oxiliplatin).