Well I will give my 2 cents in this conversation since I went back and forth with the same exact scenario. I got 5 opinions and only 1 said that he recommends chemo SINCE I had the surgery and it successfully removed the tumor which was only 1.7 but showed some extra capsular spread...however the 1 doctor that recommended it was Dr. Trotti at Moffitt. He did say that he tends to be a little more "scentific" and that nobody was going to hold me down and make me do it like they were the radiation. Sooooo long story short I held off on the chemo and am doing the highest dosage of radiation. One of my major factors in this decision was when I was at Moffitt, the guy accross the hall REALLY needed to have the chemo and he couldnt handle it now because he had chemo 7 years prior and it trashed his kidneys and liver. I am sure chemo has come a long way since then but that is what I felt comfortable with doing at this point. If it shows back up maybe I say to myself "damn I should have done the chemo" or on the other hand do the chemo and wonder down the road if I have major complications with my organs "damn I knew I shouldnt have done the chemo" thats just my theory and like they say EVERYBODY IS DIFFERENT!! Also my age came into play which I am sure it will in your case as well. Good luck and like soooo many people told me you have to be comfortable with your decision to get thru it! I so far think I am doing fairly well seeing as how I played a 4 hr round of golf yesterday and I am about to end my 3rd week!

Just for note DAVIDCPA is the man!!!! See David I show you love! lol

Oh yea by the way David I will be making a nice donation to the OCF with my new found money thanks to you!

My kidneys and liver did well, thankfully, but my last chemo session was dropped. My medical oncologist, the one who recommended chemo in the first place, said that I was beaten up enough by treatments and could skip the last chemo. My blood work was fine throughout, but I was just so exhausted and in so much pain that I didn't even put up a fight.

ESikon, are you on Facebook?

I had induction chemo with cisplatin, doxtaxel and 5FU for 9 weeks and then 7 weeks of Rad with weekley carboplatin and so far am 18 months free of this enemey. My advice is take the toughest treatment option given to kill this enemey and then you will never as "what if" if the beast should return!! Good luck and God speed. Semper-Fi Bob

thanks! I will explore the two chemos, I was thinking carbo too but then it has a higher radiation recall.

Like everyone is saying, I don't want the possibility of it coming back so I will do whatever they recommend.

yes, I am on facebook.

There is nothing much new going on with chemo these days. Radiation and chemo are synergistic. This means that in addition to the systemic effect chemo also makes the cancer cells in the radiation field easier to kill.
I have no issues with any organ damage from the chemo to my knowledge. One thing I would recommend if you elect to get chemo. See if you can get the weekly treatment, they make more sense and are better tolerated. I had cisplatin and since I had problems with this we switched to carboplatin. This is another advantage of the smaller weekly dose, you actually have time to change if something is not right for you.

M

Just to add on to Markus' post, I talked to my RO, Dr Trotti at Moffitt about the "benefits" of smaller weekly doses over the kinda of standard 3 big bags of Cisplatin and he said the Moffitt still believes that the 3 larger doses are superior in overall results and they have no intention of switching at this time.

I know that we have had some patients post here that got the weekly doses and they definitely seemed to have an easier go than those of us that didn't and I myself often told newbies to inquire about them so when I got a chance to ask my expert I was a little surprised how quickly he shot it down so I'm just providing another point of view.

I came across this in a quick search:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/945k613h4v912167/

if anyone has come across a direct comparison 3 vs 7 doses please pipe up.

A consideration when comparing 3 times vs weekly is this. How many patients are able to get all 3 doses.... so 3 vs 7 is one thing and 2 vs 7 is another.


M

Conclusions: Comparison between two treatment modalities appears to result in statistically similar response rates and adverse event profile.

Markus, what does the phrase "similar....adverse event profile" mean?

Does that mean that both "the weekly" and "the every 3 week" methods were just as bad for the patients in this group?