Hi Maria,

My wife has been undergoing immunotherapy (on NHS) at St Barts Hospital, in cental London. She was referred there from Moorfields Eye Hospital. Unfortunately she has secondary liver cancer (from a rare eye melanoma) and her results from the treatment have not been great. There have also been side effects. 

I understand that they are getting better results with immunotherapy on certain cancers than others.

The Oncology team at St Barts are fantastic as are the facilities. They are upto date with trials available in the London area at least. She was concidered for various trials but her test results wern't quite good enough.

Might be worth seeing if your husband could  get refered to them. Hope this helps. Its certainly a very tough time for both the patient and us as carers. One day at a time and try to stay stong which some days i am and some days not!

Paul x

Thank you Paul. I'm sorry to hear it wasn't successful for your wife. I will ask the Consultant about a referral when we see him next Wed. Thinking of you.

Maria

hi eimhin, my partner is in a similar situation to yours. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in April this year at the age of 42. He had half his large bowel removed and 10/15 lymph nodes removed were also cancerous. 3 months of intense chemo and thought the cancer had gone. Scan after chemo then shows cancer in the lymph nodes in abdomen, bowel and cancer in the liver had metasticised. Now on palletive care and given 6 months to a year life expectancy. Have also looked into trials but no success at the moment. Finding it all so difficult as we also have 4 young children all under the age of 10 to stay strong and positive for. Thoughts and prayers to you all and wish you the best of luck with treatments.

Hi I'm so sorry to hear about your husband. It's heartbreaking. My husband had his large bowel removed last Nov. All his lymph nodes were clear. Then 6 mths later this. I phoned the Mc millan help line today. They advised that The immounotherapy would only be of benefit if the genetic profile of my husband's colon tumour was of a certain type. So thats the first thing I need to find out...the genetic profile of the tumour. I said I couldn't understand why it wasn't offered at the start of treatment but I would imagine it's down to cost. I hope that info is of some help. It's all such a mine field, so if we can help each other it can only be a good thing. You take care of yourself and your lovely wee family.

Maria

Hi Maria,

just wondering how things are going your end and if you managed to get any where with the immunotherapy? We hit a brick wall as soon as we started asking questions really.

kind regards 

Lisa x

Hi Lisa

When we asked about this treatment, the consultant reminded me that my husband's tumour's  genetic profile was tested after surgery. This was to check if it would respond to this treatment, which unfortunatrly it wouldn't. We were devastated to say the least. At present he is still receiving palliative chemotherapy but has had a couple of spells in hospital. I hope things are well with you. M