[PunkPhotography]

Hello,

i was wonderinf with cancer (i'm interested in cancer at the moment), what would come first: the radiationtherapy, or the operation (if there's a tumor)

thanks.

and...how long does it take for hair to grow back if the person survived?

[(JD)]

I'm sure that would depend upon the cancer. Have you tried reading at Neurotalk they have more medical/physical type forums.

That depends on the type of cancer, and what "stage" the person is in. Sometimes operating , sometimes Chemo (another name for the various antibiotics and other medications used to kill the cancer cells, which comes in pills, or liguid both taken by mouth or liquid taken by IV line, sometimes radiation, and sometimes a combo of all the above. Sometimes the client is given the choice to do one at a time and which options to go with and sometimes not. A friend of mine chose to do Iv strength chemo and radiation at the same time. Another friend chose to have the tumor removed and then lopped on top the radiation and chemo at the same time. Ive also had friends where they were not given the choice. the doctor just said right out your at stage 1, 2 whatever and this is what we are going to try first. Sometimes what type of treatment the client gets depends on what type of insurance the person has. I was diagnosed by endocscopy biopsys. Im on state insurance and so my doctor tried to pull the lets wait and see how it grows and so on before we do anything. But he didn't count on the fact that I have relatives in the medical profession and When I called him back loaded with questions and so on including the fact that if he did not want to treat me then I wanted him to send my file to another state where a relative works in a hospital with a cancer unit where I would get treatment. When he realized I was not the typical uninformed cancer patient he handed over free samples of pill form medication for me to take for three weeks. The medication made me tired and sick to my stomach. Then I had to have an endoscopy done which included biopsys to varify if the medication brought me into a remission. It did but if it hadn't they would have by endoscopy removed what they could and then I would have been given IV strength chemo and radiation at the same time.

[jbug]

My dad has colon cancer and they operated first. They took out the tumor and part of his colon. They then took 14 lymphnodes and 2 came back positive so now he's doing chemo. Twice a week every two weeks for 6 months to make sure they got it all.

Jbug

[Perna]

My friend with beast cancer had her masectomy, then chemo (the drugs) then radiation. I think they mostly want to get rid of the problem and then they make sure there's nothing remaining. But for some cancers that might be hard to operate on or are slow growing/don't move to other parts of your body, they might try to "shrink" or get rid of them with radiation first.

[PunkPhotography]

thanks guys.

but how do you know if you survied the cancer(s) -- if you do--? do you go to the doctor after 6months, wondering why you're still living..or what?

again...thanks!

[Rhapsody]

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audrah said:
thanks guys.

but how do you know if you survied the cancer(s) -- if you do--? do you go to the doctor after 6months, wondering why you're still living..or what?

again...thanks!

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My mother-in-law is a survivor of COLON CANCER (5 yrs strong) and she does continue to go for yearly check-ups and her doctor always does blood work for her over all health, as well as for confirmation that her cancer is still in remission.

BTW - I do believe she went for check-ups every 4 to 6 months for a while following her surgery five years ago, to remove the cancer.


LoVe,
Rhapsody - ((( hugs )))

I have yearly (which has been moved to every two years now that I have held a remission for a year.) endoscopies where biopsys are taken and I also see my doctor take blood tests every 6 months to a year. I also have yearly mamagrams and so on. I will have to see my cancer specialist and have blood work done most likely at intervals set by my treatment team for the rest of my life.

Each type of cancer has its own treatment protocal and followup care protocals. To find out what yours or your loved ones is you can ask the treatment specialist that is being seen in your local area.

As for the word survivor -

For some cancers there is no cure but the person can be treated and hold remissions. in some cancers if the person holds a remission for 7 years they are considered cured.

In any case my doctors say that if the person achieves a remission they are considered surviving that cancer.

The cancer specialists that I have contact with say It kind of goes back to the terms survivor and victim. A person is considered a victim when they are at the moment going through the problem and a survivor once they are no longer in that situation for example

a victim of a car crash is the person in the car as the car is crashing.

Since the person did not die from the crash they are considered a survivor of the car crash.

A sexual abuse victim is a person being sexually abused
a sexual abuse survivor is a person no longer being abused (they didn't physically die they lived through it)

A cancer victim is a person going through having cancer in the body

a cancer survivor is a person who did not die of that cancer - they achieved a remission, they had the tumor removed and other treatments were successful in killing off the cancer cells.

I am a survivor because I have not yet died of my cancer and because I am at the moment in remission.

Ordinary cells copy themselves and function as part of a heart or brain or whatever. Sometimes cells mutate (which means there are slight errors / alterations) in the copies that are made. The older you get the more your cells mutate (aging is a result of mutating cells). Cancerous cells are one kind of mutation where the cells don't function as part of a heart of brain or whatever it was they were supposed to function as. Instead they just take up room (so there is less room for healthy cells) and they replicate at a higher rate producing more cancerous cells.

A tumor is a cluster of cancerous cells. Tumors can be benign (where the cells are clustered together) or malignant (where the cancerous cells are breaking off and floating round the body looking for somewhere new to colonise).

Best case: There is a benign tumor and the tumor is located somewhere where it is possible to operate to remove it all. In that case the surgeons can go straight in and attempt to remove it. Sometimes that isn't possible though because of the location of the tumor. Sometimes the surgeons can't get to it because they would do too much damage to important structures around the tumor. Sometimes the surgeons can't remove it because it is pushing up against important structures around the tumor that would be damaged if they removed it.

In those later cases chemo can help shrink the tumor so that it is possible to operate to remove it.

When the cancer is malignant then chemo is given to help prevent the spreading of the cancerous cells. The idea is to try and kill them before they set up shop somewhere else in the body. They will also attempt to operate to remove the tumor if possible.

So whether chemo is given before or after depends... Sometimes with the operation they are only able to remove part of it so they will give chemo afterwards to help kill off the bits they couldn't remove too...