Hello All. My mom (59) was just diagnosed with Primary Peritineal Cancer at least a stage 3. She had Stage 1 Cervical Cancer 14 years ago

[knocco21]

And had a full hysterectomy done at the time and chemo & radiation. She was told this is not a reacurrence of that. Her mammo and pap were clear. She just had a perencentesis done and removed 11 quarts of fluid. Her doctor wants to start 9 weeks of chemo to shrink the tumors before she will be a good candidate for debulking surgery and heated chemo port. We are Leary to not do the surgery first. Should we seek a second opinion? She is being treated at Sloan Kettering in NYC.

[vipervictoria]

First of all, Sloan Kettering is one of the best cancer hospitals in the world. The treatment there is almost always excellent. Chemo is often used before surgery to shrink tumours (this site automatically used UK spelling) so that all visible tumours will be cleanly removed at surgery. The surgeons at Sloan are terrific, Dr Barakat is renowned as being one of the best specialist gynae cancer surgeons in the world.

Secondly this site is based in the UK, and you will find a lot more information from women with personal experience of Sloan Kettering on a site based in the US e.g. Inspire/OCNA, or the American Cancer Society.

I understand your inclination to have surgery first, but that often doesn't give a result that is as good as the result you get by interval debulking, which is the term used to describe surgery after a short course of chemo, then more surgery afterwards. You can always get a second opinion if you are unsure.

I wish your mother and you the best - the coming months will be tough, but you are in a good place to start ail and so I hope you will get an excellent result. My cousins are in the US, according to them, for gynae cancers, MSK, along with MDA in Houston Tx, Dana Farber in Boston and the Mayo Clinic are the best treatment centres. Vxxx