Hello,
My father lives in Pittsburgh, PA and was diagnosed with oral cancer in Feb 2008 and underwent chemo/radiation. In Nov/08 they reported that there were no signs of cancer and that the treatment worked.
In March/09 they discovered that the cancer had returned and he immediately underwent chemo again. He became extremely ill on the chemo and the doctors halted treatment. My father then switched hospitals where he began other types of experimental treatments which have not worked for him.
Throughout all of this treatment he has been on a feeding tube due to radiation damage of his neck/epiglottis. He has had major problems with his tubes leaking and clogging up and has had to have 10 of them replaced. As of now he is still having problems. The only food that he has been eating is Jevity and that is it. This is mainly because nothing else will work in his tube.
The doctors have told him there is nothing else that they can do for him and give him a life expectancy of 6-8 more weeks if the cancer continues to grow at its current rate. He is no longer being treated at all at this point. I have him taking Transfer Factor Plus, IP6 w/Inositol, MGN-3 (BRM4), and AveUltra (Avemar) in hopes that they may do some good.
As of now he has 5 tumors. one in each lung, one at the base of the tongue (floor of the mouth), one in his neck, and one in his jaw/chin.
At this point we seem to be all out of options as far as treatment so hopefully there is someone out there that may have some suggestions.
I've included a timeline of his treatment. It does not cover every single doctor and chemo/radiation visit but it does cover what I think are the most important ones.
2008
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2/15 *Cancer is diagnosed
2/29 Biopsy results: cancer has not spread past the neck
3/31 Radiation started
3/31 Chemo
4/01 Chemo Cisplatin
4/10 Feeding tube inserted
4/15 More chemo/radiation and the doctor sees improvement
5/15 Doctor reports that "Cancer going away" Weight 155lb
5/21 Final Radiation Treatment
5/23 Final Chemo Cisplatin 188
8/29 X-Ray found radiation burned areas and eating is allowed
9/07 Feeding tube problems - new feeding tube inserted
11/06 *Cancer is gone
12/04 Pet scan shows particles at base of throat or tongue and lungs
12/15 Dr says: Fusion of PET/CT test hard to read but "Everything looked good"
2009
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1/19 Weight 160LBs
1/29 Still no eating after test
3/16 *Small tumor under tongue, some nodules in lungs, aneurism in stomach
4/09 Lung was punctured during lung biopsy
4/15 *Cancer has spread from tumor under tongue to the lung
4/17 Chemo #1 Carb055? and Taxol 390
5/07 Chemo Carbo 635 Tavol 335
5/09 Coughing up blood
5/12 New feeding tube
5/19 No eating still after test
5/19 Doctors can't find evidence of tumors in mouth or throat
5/20 Blood transfusion
5/22 New tube inserted directly into intestines
6/09 Transfusion
6/14 Doctor stops Chemo because of bad effects
6/19 *Biopsy results show that cancer is back
6/25 *Treatment will now be done at Hillman Cancer Center (UPMC)
7/07 Tumor on edge of jaw
8/25 *IMC-A12 Treatment, Weight 146lb
9/08 *Tumors have grown 23% since start of IMC-A12 treatment.
9/08 *Nodules in the lungs are now tumors
9/12 Coughing up blood from lungs
9/18 Laser surgery to remove parts of tumors in the lungs to stop bleeding
9/22 *
Erbitux treatment
9/23 Blood transfusion
10/07 *Cancer is worse and no other treatment to offer, suggest hospice
10/07 Radiation suggested to temporarily help control/stop lung bleeding
10/12 Weight 140lbs
10/20 Final meeting with doctors and they report there is nothing else they
can do
10/28 CT scans reports 10-15% increase in tumor size since the last scan
10/28 Doctors estimate 6-8 weeks survival if tumors increase at current rate.
If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Christian
