update: Good news re granddaughter and cervical cancer!

Gingergrrl

Gingergrrl

Senior Member
Messages
16,171
@Mary, I missed this thread but will definitely be adding your granddaughter, Jessica, to my prayers and please keep us posted how she is doing.

upload_2016-10-23_13-3-2.png
 
Mary

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,876
Location
Texas Hill Country
@Gingergrrl - and everyone - I was just going to post an update (just got the title changed with Kina's kind help).

Well - first off - the cancer was not as advanced as I originally feared. When my son told me they had to halt the surgery because it was too advanced, I assumed the worst. And he and his wife and Jessica were so stressed at the time I didn't want to probe for details (they're several hundred miles away). But it turns out that the cancer had spread a little (something like that) to a few lymph nodes, but was still considered early stage, but that's why they halted the surgery because of the lymph node involvement. I'm still a little puzzled by this treatment decision, maybe someday I'll get a better explanation. On a positive note, if the cancer is gone, then perhaps she could still have children since they didn't do a hysterectomy.

She had "low-dose" chemo which finished shortly before Christmas, and radiation which finished a week or 2 ago.
In late November (mid-treatment) a PET scan showed the tumor shrinking and lymph nodes responding and it had not spread further into the lymph nodes.

And now they are just waiting to see how she does. They'll be doing testing (I'm guessing another PET scan) in early April to see how she is.

So I really appreciate everyone's kind wishes and prayers!! :):hug:
 
bertiedog

bertiedog

Senior Member
Messages
1,745
Location
South East England, UK
@Mary I am so pleased that you, Jessica and her family have had some good news and that her treatment hasn't been too difficult. Lets hope and pray she will now be well.

My brother has just been diagnosed with an aggressive prostrate cancer even though he didn't really have any symptoms and has just started on hormone treatment plus monthly injections. This is for 6 months and then he has to have 7 weeks of radiotherapy for 5 days a week so its going to be a very difficult time The only good news was that scans showed he doesn't have any other tumours so it looks like this cancer is just within the prostrate. As my mother died from ovarian cancer at 73 it was a huge shock that my brother has been diagnosed in this way at 72.

Best Wishes
Pam
 
Mary

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,876
Location
Texas Hill Country
bertiedog said:
@Mary I am so pleased that you, Jessica and her family have had some good news and that her treatment hasn't been too difficult. Lets hope and pray she will now be well.

My brother has just been diagnosed with an aggressive prostrate cancer even though he didn't really have any symptoms and has just started on hormone treatment plus monthly injections. This is for 6 months and then he has to have 7 weeks of radiotherapy for 5 days a week so its going to be a very difficult time The only good news was that scans showed he doesn't have any other tumours so it looks like this cancer is just within the prostrate. As my mother died from ovarian cancer at 73 it was a huge shock that my brother has been diagnosed in this way at 72.

Best Wishes
Pam
Click to expand...

Pam - Thank you so much for your good wishes! But I'm sorry to hear about your brother. It's very good of course that it appears to be confined to the prostate, and hopefully his treatment will be successful - I will keep you all in my thoughts and prayers too. I'm sorry to hear about your mother as well. My niece died of ovarian cancer when she was 37. It's a tough one --

Take care -

Mary
 
Mary

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,876
Location
Texas Hill Country
Gingergrrl said:
I did not know that @Mary and am so sorry. Will continue to pray for Jessica and thank you for posting the update.
Click to expand...

Thanks @Gingergrrl - What is really maddening is that it took the doctor over a year to diagnose her. I had originally thought it was 11 months but recently found out closer to 2 years - among other things, he told my niece it was normal to have pain during sex. By the time he figured it out, she looked like she was 6 months pregnant - and she was thin otherwise. I keep reading that the signs of ovarian cancer are vague, but they're not, to an informed person, and doctors should be informed about this.

Here are the common symptoms for ovarian cancer:

Bloating
  • Pelvic or abdominal pain
  • Trouble eating or feeling full quickly
  • Urinary symptoms such as urgency (always feeling like you have to go) or frequency (having to go often)
Fatigue
  • Upset stomach
  • Back pain
  • Pain during sex
  • Constipation
  • Menstrual changes
  • Abdominal swelling with weight loss
 
Gingergrrl

Gingergrrl

Senior Member
Messages
16,171
Mary said:
Thanks @Gingergrrl - What is really maddening is that it took the doctor over a year to diagnose her. I had originally thought it was 11 months but recently found out closer to 2 years - among other things, he told my niece it was normal to have pain during sex. By the time he figured it out, she looked like she was 6 months pregnant - and she was thin otherwise. I keep reading that the signs of ovarian cancer are vague, but they're not, to an informed person, and doctors should be informed about this.
Click to expand...

@Mary Reading that was maddening and it seems like there is no end to doctors misdiagnosing or simply not taking the time to investigate when a patient is clearly reporting that something is wrong. This happened to Gilda Radner when she had ovarian cancer (in spite of her wealth and celebrity) and she was dismissed and misdiagnosed until her cancer was stage four and too late. I am so sorry about your niece having to go through this.

Mary said:
Here are the common symptoms for ovarian cancer:
Click to expand...

Thank you for posting the common signs and I believe that someone will stumble across your post in a Google search one day and it will save someone's life. This is one of the things that I love about PR.
 
B

barbc56

Senior Member
Messages
3,657
Unfortunately, ovarian cancer is very difficult to catch early. The symptoms can be very subtle to none at all, though the latter is not as common. Many of the symptoms can be attributed to other health problems. In the majority of women who have these symptoms, (thanks @Mary for posting them), they are usually due to conditions that are not cancer.

My sister was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer in September. In her case, she had no symptoms until her abdomen became so bloated, she ended up in the ER. This happened almost overnight. Fortunately, her husband is an oncologist. Obviously, he can't be her doctor, but he knows the system, so to speak, and she is getting very good medical care. In a better world all women would have access to the quality of care she's getting.

I have copied and pasted the following article by the American Cancer Society in full, as it has some very important information which might help someone's chances of catching the cancer earlier. It also explains why Ovarian cancer is difficult to diagnose. If you go to the URL, the article leads to even more helpful information.

While this article is depressing, it's worth reading. Knowledge is power!

Can ovarian cancer be found early?
About 20% of ovarian cancers are found at an early stage. When ovarian cancer is found early at a localized stage, about 94% of patients live longer than 5 years after diagnosis. Several large studies are in progress to learn the best ways to find ovarian cancer in its earliest stage.

Ways to find ovarian cancer early
Regular women's health exams
During a pelvic exam, the health care professional feels the ovaries and uterus for size, shape, and consistency. A pelvic exam can be useful because it can find some reproductive system cancers at an early stage, but most early ovarian tumors are difficult or impossible for even the most skilled examiner to feel. Pelvic exams may, however, help identify other cancers or gynecologic conditions. Women should discuss the need for these exams with their doctor.

The Pap test is effective in early detection of cervical cancer, but it isn’t a test for ovarian cancer. Rarely, ovarian cancers are found through Pap tests, but usually they are at an advanced stage.

See a doctor if you have symptoms
Early cancers of the ovaries often cause no symptoms. When ovarian cancer causes symptoms, they tend to be symptoms that are more commonly caused by other things. These symptoms include abdominal swelling or bloating (due to a mass or a buildup of fluid), pelvic pressure or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly, and/or urinary symptoms (having to go urgently or often). Most of these symptoms can also be caused by other less serious conditions. These symptoms can be more severe when they are caused by ovarian cancer, but that isn’t always true. What is most important is that they are a change from how a woman usually feels.

By the time ovarian cancer is considered as a possible cause of these symptoms, it usually has already spread beyond the ovaries. Also, some types of ovarian cancer can rapidly spread to the surface of nearby organs. Still, prompt attention to symptoms may improve the odds of early diagnosis and successful treatment. If you have symptoms similar to those of ovarian cancer almost daily for more than a few weeks, and they can't be explained by other more common conditions, report them to your health care professional -- preferably a gynecologist -- right away.

Screening tests for ovarian cancer
Screening tests and exams are used to detect a disease, like cancer, in people who don’t have any symptoms. Perhaps the best example of this is the mammogram, which can often detect breast cancer in its earliest stage, even before a doctor can feel the cancer. There has been a lot of research to develop a screening test for ovarian cancer, but there hasn’t been much success so far. The 2 tests used most often to screen for ovarian cancer are transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS) and the CA-125 blood test.

TVUS is a test that uses sound waves to look at the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries by putting an ultrasound wand into the vagina. It can help find a mass (tumor) in the ovary, but it can't actually tell if a mass is cancer or benign. When it is used for screening, most of the masses found are not cancer.

CA-125 is a protein in the blood. In many women with ovarian cancer, levels of CA-125 are high. This test can be useful as a tumor marker to help guide treatment in women known to have ovarian cancer, because a high level often goes down if treatment is working.

But checking CA-125 levels has not been found to be as useful as a screening test for ovarian cancer. The problem with using this test for screening is that common conditions other than cancer can also cause high levels of CA-125. In women who have not been diagnosed with cancer, a high CA-125 level is more often caused by one of these other conditions and not ovarian cancer. Also, not everyone who has ovarian cancer has a high CA-125 level. When someone who is not known to have ovarian cancer has an abnormal CA-125 level, the doctor might repeat the test (to make sure the result is correct). The doctor could also consider ordering a transvaginal ultrasound test.

In studies of women at average risk of ovarian cancer, using TVUS and CA-125 for screening led to more testing and sometimes more surgeries, but did not lower the number of deaths caused by ovarian cancer. For that reason, no major medical or professional organization recommends the routine use of TVUS or the CA-125 blood test to screen for ovarian cancer.

Some organizations state that these tests may be offered to screen women who have a high risk of ovarian cancer due to an inherited genetic syndrome (discussed in the section “Do we know what causes ovarian cancer?”). Still, even in these women, it’s not clear that using these tests for screening lowers their chances of dying from ovarian cancer.

Better ways to screen for ovarian cancer are being researched. Hopefully, improvements in screening tests will eventually lead to a lower ovarian cancer death rate.

There are no recommended screening tests for germ cell tumors or stromal tumors. Some germ cell cancers release certain protein markers such as human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) into the blood. After these tumors have been treated by surgery and chemotherapy, blood tests for these markers can be used to see if treatment is working and to determine if the cancer is coming back.

Researchers continue to look for new tests to help diagnose ovarian cancer early but currently there are no reliable screening tests.


Last Medical Review: 08/05/2014
Last Revised: 02/04/2016
Click to expand...

http://www.cancer.org/cancer/ovariancancer/detailedguide/ovarian-cancer-detection
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back