6 days to surgery and today's CT results for Liz Swartz

Hi Liz,

Just saw your message and was very disappointed about the CT results, the mammo and uterine mass, yes that is just too much. I am hoping that Sutent has done what it's supposed to do and that the pathology will show those node swellings to be benign, maybe the bladder mass is a dead lump too, as well as any suspicious uterine mass...

You poor dear, thinking you may even have breast cancer. Your doctor is right that it's more important to chase the blc first rather than the bc. But as a bc survivor myself, I remember how i felt waiting 10 weeks for the surgery-I developed this pain that turned out to be simply due to the way I held myself, tensely and protectively, just knowing something was in there (actually it was a big lump and I could see it). I ended up with an advanced dx but am still cancer free 7 yrs now, so yes, he's right. BC has way more options that blc, so you can cross that bridge when you are ready to.

MVAC has the most research done, and is still considered to have the best response rate for blc. The dose intensive treatment has even higher reponse rates; a person must be in good general health to handle it. That's why there has been a mad search for chemos that are easier to tolerate (since many blc patients are elderly), cisplatin containing regimens are the most effective. Gemzar and cisplatin have been getting more and more popular but your doctor is going for the combo with the biggest punch.

Hang in,
Wendy

Liz..look on the home page under treatment options...MVAC explained there.
Pat

Today is 6 days to surgery and I was starting to freak about it last ealier this week, but then I saw many of your posts saying that the 'anticipation' was worse than the actual surgery, so I am staking my hopes on that!

Today I had a repeat CT after taking 28 days of the trial med Sutent. I knew while I was taking it that it was working because the 'cancer' pain went away (I had new pains) but that familiar pain I had felt since May was gone. Three days after treatment stopped that familiar pain was back, so I knew in my heart the CT would say the cancer was still there. And sure enough it did, however the bladder cancer did appear to be smaller in size, but the 2 lymph nodes in question were larger. The ongologist said not to worry about that too much as the cells could have died inside which would make them blow up like a balloon, but we don't know for sure until after surgery. The radiologist noted on the CT that the mass in my uterus that the previous doc said was a fibroid tumor, he thinks is now cancer. Again the oncologist said not to worry too much, as we again cannot know for sure until after surgery. On top of all of this, my gyn made me have a mammogram which of course shows abnormal. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! How much can one person take. Again the oncologist said, don't worry about that now, if it does come down to you having breast cancer, I feel you can survive that better than the bladder cancer right now, and we have to proceed in treating it. So I go to surgery next week, and wait on the rest..........enough to drive a person to drink. We then discussed receiving 3 treatments of MVAC chemo after the surgery, and he will give me double doeses at least twice in a cycle to make sure we are being very aggressive.
So I ask you all, what am I to expect with double doses of MVAC Chemo, and what the hech is MVAC chemo?
Looking forward to hearing from all of you survivors that have experienced MVAC!
Liz