Cancer Under Control?

Question

My mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer 6 months ago, at first she was told she had 6mos-1yr. Its not operable, she just finished 6 rounds of chemo. On her last MRI, the doctor said the chemo had worked and that it was under control. I am wondering what does this mean exactly, If its under control does it mean it won't kill her? She has responded very well, she has hardly had any adverse side effects to chemo except the obvious, like hair falling out and weight loss. The only real problem she has had is joint pain. Her red and white blood cells have not gone down. They are stopping chemo until symptoms come back, as long is the symptoms don't come back does that mean she will be ok?

Answer 1

All this means is that the cancer is not growing and spreading. The treatment she is taking has been working for her . . and the problem unfortunately is not that the treatment doesn't work . . its what happens when it is stopped or stops working. I do not think it is a good idea to stop chemotherapy all treatments at this time . . this sounds like the 'wait and see' approach. If the doctors can't detect or see any cancer . .they like to 'wait and see' what happens. The cancer may not be gone . .it just may be too 'small' to be seen. A cancer patient will stop treatment and a few months later the cancer grows large enough to be seen again . . than it is treatment all over again.

This is tough . . because it is likely that the cancer is still there . . but the doctor won't treat her unless they can see the cancer . . she needs to be pro-active and research her type of lung cancer .. talk to other people and see what they are doing in her type of situation. Perhaps there is some type of Maintenance therapy she could do . . in either case there is no way of anyone knowing if the disease is gone, under control . . or if treatment is stopped it won't come back with a vengence. She needs to stay in some type of treatment.

You did not say which type of lung cancer she had but she can locate others online at ACOR. Have her join and ask these same questions. :

http://www.acor.org/mailing.html?l=l

The situation your mom is in is common among those who gain control of their cancer . . doctors routinely do not want to use toxic drugs to treat a patient who has no evidence of disease . .even though it is likely the disease is just dormant or you can't see it. So 'waiting' becomes the 'option' . . . and that is really not a good option.

Good luck.