My father's scans came in saying there are new growths across his spine.
Original plan was to go on Chemo (Docetaxcel), but since these new scans they're saying we either choose between Surgery or Radiation.
With Surgery the recovery time could be around 3 months. Doctor said it would be a risk because within that 3 month recovery time, we can't start Chemo until it's healed. There is a possibility for new growths in between.
With radiation, the Doctor said recovery time would be a lot quicker so new issues can be addressed more quickly.
I'm not sure about any of this, but I'd love to hear any suggestions, advice, or stories. Wishing you all luck on your journey!
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Jocky500
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surgery would be better for rapid relief of neurological symptoms and/or vertebral colapse. More suitable for focal single lesion. Radiation has a very good response rate, good pain relief and excellent local control specially with SBRT technique. Multiple lesions would be best treated with radiation too. The fast recovery and small interval to systemic treatment initiation would be another advantage for radiation.
not being a doctor, it sounds like a "no-brainer" to me. Radiation. there can be side effects of radiation including long term effects but overall it is what i would do myself even though i have significant radiation cystitis(from initial prostate cancer treatment) which is not fun. So I don't recommend radiation lightly.
listen to your doctors, I have bone. Mets in my neck,spine, ribs and pelvis. My doctor and I decided to do chemo first,then on to pills after. So I did 6 rounds of Taxotere,then switched to Xtandi. Last month was 6 years since my first treatment. The chemo stopped the advance of the cancer and stopped the cancer in my lymph nodes as well. There are so many schools of thought on how to treat cancer today, it’s just the luck of the draw I guess. Good luck to your father. Tell him to keep up the faith and draw the loved ones near 🙏🙏🙏
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