3 sessions 50% reduction

[Bob cp]

My latest CT Scan showed that after 3 full week long sessions of chemo spread from August - October, that my 3.5cm X 2.5 cm tumor which had gone to my lymph node is reduced by 50%. To me this is disappointing as I had hoped to avoid a 4th round of treatments. After the last round, I just spent the past 5 days in the hospital due to low wbc and hemoglobin counts among other things. I had to have 4 units of blood during that time. My fear is what the next round may produce. I have missed a lot of time at the office and the church where I pastor and now will have to miss more. The doc says that after the 4th treatment, they wait some time and then recheck the progress. I do not totally understand what happens after that if there is still cancer there. He is following directives from Indiana Univ. I will see him this week to find out more and to have my next bleomycin booster. I still have 2 more of those. I thought the treatment for this was 90% successful.

This is the latest.

Bob

[keepcouchfresh]

Hi Bob,

50% is better then nothing so look at it that way but I can understand your disappointment

I myself am unsure if I will need a 4th round of BEP or not, I start my 3rd round tomorrow. I would hate to have a 4th round but what choice do I have, I can't just do nothing.

After the initial 3 or 4 rounds of BEP, you go to salvage chemo, i.e., TIP. But you can find people on here who had this 2nd line of chemo and then they're cured.

The cure rate starts at 100% and goes downhill from there depending on non-seminoma and the stage.

see what happens after round 4

[mstlyn]

As you probably already know, sometimes there will be residual masses that will necessitate surgery.
It doesn't always completely shrink away with chemo, but of course you are not done with chemo yet, so wait and see. Even if the mass is still there after chemo, it may be dead tissue, but would still need to be removed to make sure, or, it could be teratoma, which should also be removed.
When my son had chemo, all of his markers returned to normal, but his post chemo scan showed a residual mass, though it turned out to be cancerous, residual yolk sack. Note: His AFP started increasing again about a month after chemo, while surgery was being scheduled.

Anyway, he had RPLND (einhorns recommendation) on June 8-07 and so far there are no signs of disease.

Just remember that once you finish chemo, if you still have that enlarged node, it may very well be dead.