Treatment for older patients

[Manchesterlady]

Hello , I was wondering how many ladies were diagnosed in their seventies . Is it all worth the surgery and chemo . I know I’m not in a good place at the moment , and would appreciate your opinions . Thank you

[Shortie38]

Hi i was diagnosed in 2015 iwas76yrs i had tomoxfin for 2yrs did'nt work then denbulking op.1yr ago i have just finished 14 wks of chemo taxol but it has'nt stop me from dancing orholidays.take it day at a time .take care.shortie 38.x

[CallmeMum]

Hi my lovely

Only you can answer that question is it worth it? From the point of view from the family side of things yes because they love you and want you here forever my own special person asked the same questions and she was in her 50’s upon diagnosis and it was very bleak 6 months to live with chemo that was 2015 she’s still here 3 years later xxx

[Janet235]

Don't you know that the 70s are the new 60s? I was diagnosed at 69 and now near my 71 st birthday. I was devastated at first because cancer was definitely not in my life plan and I was fully convinced would get to 100 like my epic Aunt Lily...

I am happy in lots of ways in that I have had a great life and still am ... I have had a good career as a special needs teacher, have two fantastic grown up kids and two wonderful grandchildren, only bugbear is they live in Vancouver! I have travelled to some fantastic places in the world though there are still wish places to go see of course

Major downside is I Am not as fit and active as I always have been in the past ... from a runner and walker of hills and dales to a slow shuffle round the park supermarket and garden...but hey!

Mainly I have the most loving and supportive husband, and lots of friends who care and love me.

So to answer your question... most definitely YES! All the treatment, pain and worry is worth it.

I just feel constantly sad and worried about younger women diagnosed with OC with young children and the uncertainties of what life might bring, especially in the beginning like you....

Take heart in this forum, ask all those questions of the experts and I hope a path opens up and helps you through to a more settled place

Janet x 🌈😍🤞🏻

[Petrolhead]

Why don’t you post a short post to say why it is worth it for you in your world (or otherwise ) to see if others agree or not in their world.

Fay

[Kryssy]

My mammy Betty (not my birth mother but as good as) was diagnosed at 90. Had a full hysterectomy at 91 followed by tablet therapy. She fell asleep at 93 in her own home without cancer. If she hadn't gained those extra years it would have been such a sadness for everyone who knew her. There's one thing which seems to be said about getting cancer later in life. The cancer grows slower than if you are young. But, as Callmemum says, it's your choice but don't make a decision without taking into account what your loved ones feel. After all, it is them who will live with the heartache once you are no longer here and you won't get the chance to come back and say sorry. I am 70 this year and fighting tooth and nail to get every second I can on this planet. I'll do whatever it takes and put up with the side effects etc. - as I have done already. For me, at the moment, the alternative is not an option. I hope you feel better about things soon and I'm sorry if this post sounds harsh. It's not meant to be. Take care xxx

[Caleda4]

Hi, 70 is not old these days & we were all shaken when given the news about cancer, but for me I just knew I had to give it my best shot. I was 70 when diagnosed in September 2015 & after the hysterectomy was told that I definitely should consider having chemo & brachytherapy because not only did I have endometrial cancer they also found it in one of my fallopian tubes,& it is stage 2 grade 3 serous type. (This is classed & treated the same as ovarian).

I had 4 cycles of chemo,which beforehand I was petrified about,but eventually got used to the idea. After this I had the brachytherapy which was over 4 days 7-10minutes each day so this was fine.

It would be your decision whether to have treatment or not, but it certainly has given me time & in actual fact I feel really well,so I am really thankful to the NHS.

Try to take one day at a time & if you do decide to go forward with treatment,all I can say is that once there is a plan in place you will feel better about things.

This group is extremely helpful & there are lovely ladies on here that will help you through if you have more questions.

I wish you well whatever your decision.xxx

[Hidden]

I was diagnosed at 55 and managed the treatment now I am that bit older I wonder will it be more draining but I imagine the oncologists take your general health into consideration when ordering the chemo script. I wish you well

[Lyndy]

As you say you are not in a good place right now...so don’t decide anything while you are so low. I would suggest talking things through with a supportive friend or Macmillan counsellor.

Most of us get through first line chemo and de bulking and benefit from going into remission. It isn’t a picnic but it is surprisingly do-able.

Give yourself a chance to process what has happened to you.... then decide what to do next. Sending love xx

[January-2016-UK]

I was diagnosed at 67, approaching 70 now. Most definitely for me it is worth having the surgery and the chemo. I am fortunate in that I do not suffer too much with side-effects from chemo and recovered quickly from surgery. I can do most things I used to be able to do, although I have slowed down a little.

So, in answer to your question, yes it very definitely is worth it, in my opinion.

[Rachael47]

My first question to the surgeon who broke the news and outlined the treatment plan was 'is it worth the trouble and cost as I'm nearly 70?' He seemed shocked and said it was so I had the first round of carbo/taxol/avastin. I'm two years on now, and although I have felt fairly grotty for most of them I'm glad I went for it. Having said that, I'm not convinced that I will go for further treatment if it recurs, which I think it might be about to.

[Caroles1]

Life is always worth living, we all have times when we aren’t in a good place, but then you will wake up to sunshine, flowers blooming and birds singing and it lifts your spirits.

I am early 60s, but I still have a lot to give and more living to do, I just hope you come round to feeling the same.

Maybe speak to the help here on line, or arrange to see a counsellor, talking may help.

Do something that makes you happy, no matter how trivial, some times it’s the small things that make a difference.

We are all here for you if you need us,

Love Carole xx

[DebMarner]

My mum was diagnosed stage 4 high grade OC at age 73. She had full debulking surgery followed by carbo/taxol chemo & Avastin. She has now been in full remission for two years & she would say to you that YES it was SO worth it.

The surgery was big but she recovered & healed well. After each chemo she was tired & had constipation for a few days but was then not too bad and on the whole found it easier than she expected. Of course she needed a lot of help & support but she managed gentle walks with her dog, pottered in the garden & saw her grandchildren all through the chemo. The hardest part of it was the toll it took on her mentally particularly in the earlier days after diagnosis.

When (or if) she recurs I know she would go through it all over again to give herself the chance of more time with her family & to do the things she loves. She also doesn’t consider herself to be that old at 75 & neither does her Oncologist.

As her daughter, I was very stressed by her diagnosis and not a day went by without me wishing I could swap places with her. I would have been completely heartbroken if she’d said no to first line treatment...

We are often stronger than we think. Good luck & my best wishes to you. Deborah

[Nancy222 in reply to DebMarner]

This is such an important sentence, "We are often stronger than we think." So true. XXOO

[lorraine71-Australia]

Hi , Good advice as usual from our lovely ladies, I've been on here now for near 4 years and

been on treatment most of the time, I'm now about to go on my 6th chemo and have had times when I think should I let it take is course, then I think about my family a won't to be with them for longer, so I'm waiting to start Carbo/Caelyx again.

I'll be 73 in July and was told when diagnosed I would not see the year out, it's not always been easy but I'm glad I did it, be course I would have missed out on 4 Christmas celebrations with my family and the achievements of my grandchildren, I hope to be here to see more.

You are not in a good place now but I hope the decision you make is the right one for you

Take care my friend..Lorraine xx

[Boot1947]

I was diagnosed at 67, had 'the op' and chemo and have been NED (no evidence of disease) ever since. My oncologists insist that I'm still young in their eyes, which is always encouraging! As everyone else has said, 70 really isn't old these days - but, of course, the decision is yours. Treatment is so much more effective now, so please don't give up. You could be like me, first time lucky! Deb x

[Clarissa]

Hello.. so sorry you're facing this. My mum was diagnosed aged 79 at stage 3a and had debulking surgery and six rounds of carboplatin. She stayed in remission until she was 85.

It recurred, as we knew it would eventually, in November last year. Not suitable for surgery, now stage 4, but today she is going for the last dose of her second line chemo (Carbo again).

When I think of all the things she's done in the past six years, it has so been worth it.

A lot will depend on your general health to start with. My mum was a very fit and healthy 79 year old, apart from the OC of course. Given her age, they didn't hit her hard... just the one drug. And it's a much smaller dose this time round. But she is still living every day to the full.

I think if you have the will to do this, you will cope with the side effects. Wishing you all the best x

[cathy46]

I was diagnosed 8 years ago and will be 72 this year I had surgery and chemo and was NED for almost 5 years Have been on treatment now for the last couple of years and has definitely been worth it fo me Good luck with your decision Wishing you many more years x❤️

[bamboo89]

Talk to your Macmillan nurse - there should be a psychologist available for you to see, and they will arrange that for you, or should do. There is usually a psychologist available for cancer patients - I certainly went to see one through the service, and saw her five times because I was trying to make my mind up. She helped me do that - she didn't tell me what to do, but helped me clarify what I really thought and felt about having chemotherapy and, actually, life/living. And in the meantime, my oncologist, and the chemo they were offering, had to go on hold. They didn't like it, but they had to put up with it.

I finally decided I wasn't having any chemotherapy, and how I got there was this; I realised, with the help of the psychologist, I would spend my remaining time thinking every random symptom I got was related to cancer - whether I had chemo or not - and that this disease is likely going to kill me - whether I have chemo or not. There's a chance I might live longer with chemo - but no one can say for sure, you might live as long without as with - or not. The trick is not to make the decision out of fear, and by that I mean don't refuse chemo because of fear of the chemo itself, despite its being a very daunting prospect; you can decide you do or don't want chemo for perfectly calm, logical reasons, its possible. if you decide you want to fight with every fibre of your being because you still want to be here for as long as possible, and you're not ready to be equable about the possibility of dying, the only standard treatment available at this stage is chemo; you might therefore decide you have to go down that route. But it's absolutely your choice, no one else's.

All I know is, every bone in my body was shouting no to the chemo, which was largely fear based - I had to get my logical mind sorted out to work out what I really wanted to do, to get both my gut instinct and my mind in tune. Which I did, but just because I decided against, that doesn't mean that's the right decision for you, you may decide differently. And perhaps our cancer is different - mine is Stage 4b, it started as epithelial serous OC and differentiated, unfortunately, into a very aggressive non small cell neuroendocrine cancer. Double whammy - those two forms require two different chemo regimes each, so they were going to start with taxol/carbo - and perhaps use caelyx/etopisode a bit later, when one or other returned. And it was 'when' not 'if'... which certainly concentrates the mind. I discovered this by asking to see the senior oncologist and asking the right questions. He couldn't predict when my cancer would return with chemo, and couldn't predict when it would return without it - its just they think giving chemo gives one 'the best chance' of more time - but I could see this future of repeated treatments in front of me, and I really didn't fancy it. To be honest though, even if my cancer had not differentiated, at Stage 4b and at my age, I would likely still have refused chemo, probably because I do not fear dying.

Were I, say, 52 (and not almost 68) and Stage 2, say, or still had children at home, my answer may well have been different - but this is personal to you, your life and circumstances and level of general health; you need to take some time (despite probably feeling hurried onto the treatment conveyor belt by the docs) and if possible, work it through with a psychologist. In the meantime, get hold of a copy of The Cancer Whisperer by Sophie Babbage - I can't recommend it highly enough if you're trying to make this very difficult decision about treatment, it certainly helped to clarify my mind.

Good luck... you'll work out what you do and don't want to do eventually.

[Manchesterlady in reply to bamboo89]

Thank you for taking the time to respond in such detail, I can identify with you on so many points . I certainly feel rushed , like I don’t have a choice. I normally can be quite assertive when needed, but this has reduced me to a total wreck. I’m not afraid of standing my ground with the medical profession. I wish you well .

[bamboo89 in reply to Manchesterlady]

I could shout me too in response to this! It took me a while to get a grip and work through it, had to get past the overwhelming fear first...

[bamboo89]

I just realised I did not address your question fully - you also asked about surgery. I did have that done, recovered quite well and lived to tell the tale, albeit with a very unlovely hernia left behind by the surgery at my midriff. I was persuaded into that because they can't tell how extensive the cancer is just by looking at the scans because they don't show the 'seedling' cancers that might be present. So to find out exactly what's going on, unfortunately, surgery is part of that process, but if you decide you don't want any adjuvant chemotherapy, that might mean you refuse the surgery - or just have the surgery and think about the chemo later. Again, its your choice, no one else's, not your family's or your partner's or the doctors' decision... This is not an easy journey, and I'm sure its not one any of us would have chosen, but there's no escaping it, you just have to work through it, one way or the other.

[Lemon22005]

Hi my name is Sharon I live in USA I’ve been thru4 chemo regimens and was stable the chemo has done a lot to my body and I said enough I feel like the chemotherapy is slowly killing me so I stopped started taking Monero tree capsules baking soda with lemon juice and eating blueberries I have been off chemo for 4 months as I felt quality is better then quantity my ca 125 has stayed at 11 last month 10 our body can take just so much chemotherapy then it will shut down as it is poison everybody has to make their own decision but I don’t want to be sick for what’s left of my life so I’ll contiue my regimen and have faith in Jesus that I’ll be ok