| | Joined: Mar 2015 Posts: 55 Supporting Member (50+ posts) |  Supporting Member (50+ posts)
Joined: Mar 2015 Posts: 55 | We've lost quite a few members of my wife's and my own family to cancers of various kinds over the years, so I would have watched this in any case. But it was especially poignant for me last night given my diagnosis last Friday. Seeing what kind of research has brought us to this point, and how much suffering has happened to get us here put my own case in much better perspective. And I cried when the little boy died, feeling lucky for the first time since then.
Peter, age 62 at Dx
3/27/15 Dx T2N2aM0 Tonsilar P16+ G3 SCC
4/6/15 Full PET clear except for above
4/24/15 TOLM tonsillectomy/clear margins. Neck dissection 20 nodes (1 w/cancer & extracapsular extension)
5/28/15 PEG in
5/27 - 7/10/15 Daily Radiation to 66 units cumulative; Cisplatin weekly X 7
8/24/15 PEG out
9/24/15 Full body PET - N.E.D.
12/22/15 CT and physical exam. Continued clear.
3/11/16 Physical exam. Continued clear.
7/12/16 One year post-treatment! CT clear.
7/7/17 2 years post - still clear
| | | | | Joined: Jan 2013 Posts: 1,293 Likes: 1 Patient Advocate (1000+ posts) | | Patient Advocate (1000+ posts)
Joined: Jan 2013 Posts: 1,293 Likes: 1 | I caught the episode last night and it was super uplifting to learn more details how biotech research in immunology and gene therapies are going to lead to much greater cure rates with far fewer long term side effects.
Just like the radical mastectomy seems so arcane, brutal, and plain wrong, we will look back on radiation and think the same thing.
Don Male, 57 - Great health except C Dec '12 DX: BOT SCC T2N2bMx, Stage 4a, HPV+, multiple nodes 1 tooth out Jan '13 2nd tooth out Tumor Board -induction TPF (3 cycles), seq CRT 4-6/2013 CRT 70gr 2x35, weekly carbo150 ended 5/29,6/4 All the details, join at http://beatdown.cognacom.com | | | | | Joined: Nov 2009 Posts: 644 Likes: 1 "OCF Down Under, Kiwi" "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) | | "OCF Down Under, Kiwi" "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts)
Joined: Nov 2009 Posts: 644 Likes: 1 | I've just watched the four two hour episodes online over the last two days. I'm left feeling emotionally battered but full of admiration for all the patient research that has taken place over the last century or so.
1996, ovarian cancer surgery + cisplatin and taxol.
September, 2007, SCC of left lateral tongue. Excision.
October, 2009 recurrence in scar tissue, T1NOMO. Free flap surgery from left wrist - neck dissection. 63 year old New Zealander. No chemo, no RT.
February, 2014. New primary in left buccal mucosa. Marginal mandibulectomy, neck dissection, right arm free forearm flap. T1N0M0 but third occurrence and some areas of concern: RT started 8 April and finished 19 May.
| | | | | Joined: Dec 2012 Posts: 17 Member | | Member
Joined: Dec 2012 Posts: 17 | I felt the same way after watching the first two hours. It was heart wrenching to watch the portion I did. I couldn't watch the final two hours. The whole documentary hit too close to home in many ways.
Last edited by Virgo; 05-10-2015 05:31 PM.
"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
Blanche, Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire"
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