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marma Offline OP
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Hi everyone.

Three concerns today.

My FIL completed his IMRT and Erbitux almost one year ago today and gets a full body PET scan every three months.

Please Bear in mind that he is in India and there is little to no multi-disciplinary care for him, and I am supplementing that by covering the basics and this site and your help are indispensible to us.


The PET scan report states

"both lobes of thyroid gland (SUV max 6.0) Suggested USG/FNAC correlation

No other FDG avid lesion detected in the scanned region of the body"

Now, clearly something appears wrong with his thyroid that is said to not appear cancerous, and he is getting an ultrasound done this week,

1. Does it mean he might have nodules on his glands? I was reading another poster's mentioning of this issue. Is it best for him to see an endocronoligst?

2. Also, he has frequent urination, in part we believe due to his amount of water consumption due to dry mouth, but he was concerned enough about it that he is also having a prostate exam and ultrasound of that area also. Any other ideas?

The good news is that no disease recurrence is indicated by clinical exam and pet scan.


3. Finally, is there any general article or documentation explaining what sid effects to look out for post TX and what kind of tests he should be getting at this point?


Thanks for any input.


FIL completed treatment 10/08. CG to father in Law in india who had SCC oral tongue T2N2M0. FIL underwent surgery, neck dissection, IMRT, and erbitux without losing weight or getting nauseated. Completed October 2008. SO far so good.
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Marma,
Regarding side effects ... post TX.

There is book a neighbor (retired PCP) gave me titled 'Radiaiton Pathology' that I found is also online (Google books). Parts and pages are missing from the online version, but it has lots of info and it is SEARCHABLE.

If you run into a missing pages with seemingly critical info, let me no and I will be happy to scan and email them to you.

There are some another online books another neighbor's sister who happens be an RO told me about. One is 'Perez and Brady's Principles and Practice of Radiation Oncology' and most of it seems to be online. Another is 'Radiotherapy for head and neck cancers' and covers the MDA protocol, but most of it is missing.

Charm recently posted some info from his 'path report' on vascular damage and there is a good discussion of this in the book I have, but not much on post RT Angiogenesis so that has peaked my curiosity.

Hope this is helpful


Don
TXN2bM0 Stage IVa SCC-Occult Primary
FNA 6/6/08-SCC in node<2cm
PET/CT 6/19/08-SCC in 2nd node<1cm
HiRes CT 6/21/08
Exploratory,Tonsillectomy(benign),Right SND 6/23/08
PEG 7/3/08-11/6/08
35 TomoTherapy 7/16/08-9/04/08 No Chemo
Clear PET/CT 11/15/08, 5/15/09, 5/28/10, 7/8/11

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marma Offline OP
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Hey thanks again don! I will look around for this in the evening.


FIL completed treatment 10/08. CG to father in Law in india who had SCC oral tongue T2N2M0. FIL underwent surgery, neck dissection, IMRT, and erbitux without losing weight or getting nauseated. Completed October 2008. SO far so good.
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Off the top of my head here are some post Tx side effects to watch out for:

Weakness especially during the first year
dry mouth usually recovers all it will by 24 months post Tx
not able to gain weight until after first year or so
Hypothyroidism
not perfect taste issues same as dry mouth recovery timetable
depression
hearing loss usually only with Cisplatin
dental issues caused by damaged blood vessels
hair loss, some recovers, some don't
getting older (good and bad)
surgery complications depending upon surgery

Remember each of us can be different.





David

Age 58 at Dx, HPV16+ SCC, Stage IV BOT+2 nodes, non smoker, casual drinker, exercise nut, Cisplatin x 3 & concurrent IMRT x 35,(70 Gy), no surgery, no Peg, Tx at Moffitt over Aug 06. Jun 07, back to riding my bike 100 miles a wk. Now doing 12 Spin classes and 60 outdoor miles per wk. Nov 13 completed Hilly Century ride for Cancer, 104 miles, 1st Place in my age group. Apr 2014 & 15, Spun for 9 straight hrs to raise $$ for YMCA's Livestrong Program. Certified Spin Instructor Jun 2014.
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marma Offline OP
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Thanks David!


FIL completed treatment 10/08. CG to father in Law in india who had SCC oral tongue T2N2M0. FIL underwent surgery, neck dissection, IMRT, and erbitux without losing weight or getting nauseated. Completed October 2008. SO far so good.

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