Right, and there's now the SIRT, radiofrequency ablation and other
targeted work done by radiotherapists that does not even include
traditional chemo per se. Sometimes it does. Here's a case in point
for those who "do not want to promote false hope". My sister's father
in law was given a death sentence with liver cancer. He went up to
Ohio State for specialized treatments and it stopped the cancer in
it's tracks. He lived six more years! He died of a heart attack at age
85. Yes, you sure do have to look at quality of life issues, but most
people want some hope.
The following is from the EC (esophageal cancer news group)--_

"I posted about this yesterday on the EC-G website, but I am writing
again because I think that it is so important to consider this new
protocol for liver tumors.  I  am writing to you personally to suggest
that you see if you are a candidate for SIRspheres implantations.  My
husband Richard was dx'ed Nov 2004 with EA with mets to liver, lungs
and lymph nodes and was given 3 months to live.  We refused to accept
that verdict by the first oncologist and ended up at Anschutz Cancer
Pavilion, a new facility,  at Univ of Colorado Health Science Center
in a suburb of Denver.  Dick went through 7 rounds of cisplatin, taxol
and 5Fu, which got rid of the lung and lymph node tumors and reduced
the liver tumors to 5 from too many to count.  There were still
primary tumor cells in the wall of his esophagus.  He then became a
candidate for SIRspheres, Stategically Implanted Radiation spheres, in
clinical trial at USCHC.  He was probably the first EC patient in the
country to have this in August
and Sept 2005.  Basically sirspheres are tiny microspheres filled
with yttrium 90, an element with a half-life of 64 hours that emits
beta irradiation.  The spheres are introduced into the liver through
the groin artery to the hepatic artery by a catheter and the spheres
are injected into the middle of each tumor.  They deliver 100x more
irradiation to the tumor cells than to the surrounding normal liver
cells, and the radioactivity disappears in about a week.  The spheres
continue to starve the liver tumors of nutrients by blocking the
microcirculation after the radioactivity disappears.  Dick was unable
to have standard irradiation because his largest liver tumor rested at
the outer edge of his right liver, against his right kidney.  Any
other type of irradiation would have destroyed his kidney. He had
absolutely NO side effects from either of the two procedures after he
recovered from the light anesthesia.   In June 2006, his liver was
declared free of tumor by PET/CT scan, so
the spheres worked as pro mised on him, gradually starving the tumor
after the rrradiation had done its primary killing.  Go to the company
website, www.sirtex.com for more information.  Beware that this is
relatively new, Dick is probably the first complete success story, and
many oncologists may dismiss this as not being tried and true or just
not feasible, because they are not aware of it.  Another similar
product is made by Theraspheres, and they also have a website.  We
always knew that Dick's liver tumors were his biggest stumbling block
and to have them so effectively eliminated is a miracle to us.  If you
would like the name of the interventional radiologist that performed
the procedure on Dick, I will be happy to provide it.  She is an
outstanding physician, former president of the American Radiology
Society, and very enthusiastic about the use of this technique on
liver tumors. The Sirtex website lists the hospitals in the US that
are doing SIRspheres treatment and they will provide a CD to describe
the procedure fully.  Good luck and feel free to correspond with us if
you have more questions.  Note that Dick did have two small recurrent
lung tumors in July 2006 which were eliminated by the new Varian
stereotactic, multifocal irradiation instrument that delivers very
precise irradiation with reduced side effects.  His irradiation to the
lungs was over a 3 day period and they were gone 3 weeks later."
Lois Dickerman,
Wife of Richard, dx Nov 2004, Stage IVb esophageal adenocarcinoma with
mets to liver, lymph nodes and lungs.  Clinically stable now 27 months
after dx.  His oncologist will not call him NED, for there is no
precedence for someone with his degree of involvement to have reached
this stage.

------------------------------

You believe. There is no "definitely" about it.
Response and survival are very distant cousins, and often not on speaking
terms.
Correlation does not imply causation.

Steph,
Actually it was the maintenance of a patent lumen at the oesophageal gastric
junction that was achieved by the chemo. The over simplification would be,
no hole, no food or fluid, no life.

Believe me, before I make comments I look very closely at carefully worded
statements. There is a general trend with you and J to suggest that there is
no effect on survival when, in any normal population there will be some good
and some bad effects. The hope is always that it will be good for the
individual, even if the reality is statistically for the population it may
not be. You see it from one direction, sufferers may see it otherwise.

I think that you will find applying things to my situation actually is
what's called putting things into context. If that is not what this group is
about then it is not what I thought it was. Things are never black and
while, just a thousand shades of grey.

Ian

To summarize the majority feel that are  you not a "stat" and chemo has
helped to prolong their lives despite the anti- chemo agenda posted by
people here.

Question to all, when  the need to discontinue comes, would you rather hear
it from your own health team or from members of your health team? Or you do
want the be told over and over again you chemo is futile and not prolonging
your life?'

Also should this group focus on end of life issues?  Or should we be
celebrating our successes ?