advice please

[Manita136]

my mum has just been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer which has spread to her lymph nodes, we were told yesterday that ii is incurable and they cannot perform surgery, she is having a stent and chemo, do you know how long we have left? does anybody have any experience of this, I’m at my wits end

[Brett77]

Sorry to hear your news. Simple answer is it comes down to how well she responds to chemo. If that goes well there could be many other medical interventions available if needed in time and she hopefully has years and years ahead. I've heard of similar stories having happy endings including people who are not surgery candidates being offered it later on. My best wishes.

[Manita136 in reply to Brett77]

Thank you so much, just need to keep positive

[Spikey]

This is a question that you should ask your mother's oncologist, though any answer he gives will be based on statistics. A near neighbour of mine was diagnosed with inoperable oesophageal cancer more than five years ago and is still alive today.You don't say how old your mother is. As the previous respondent said, it will all depend on her general health and how well she responds to chemo. Stay strong.

[Manita136 in reply to Spikey]

Thank you so much, my mum is 71 and generally in good health, the results show it’s in her lymph nodes but hasn’t spread to any other organs.

[mgloughran1]

Depending on her age and her prior health, please seek a second opinion. I had many affected lymph nodes (including one that they termed "distant" meaning not in the vicinity of the esophagus), and was told that I might qualify for surgery, or I might not depending on how the chemo and radiation treatments went. It was a long two months between the final treatment and the follow-up appointment, but I learned then that I would be able to have the resection.