Hi does anyone know of a five year survival after receiving flot chemo for oesophagus cancer stage 3? My husband is 6months post surgery and currently no detectable signs of cancer.
Hi Caz68, The best is to ask your husband's doctor. Every case of cancer is different. Your husband may not want to know his prognosis. He may, if he wishes, give permission for you to talk to the doctor alone, and ask questions. I'm not a medic, but 'no detectable signs of cancer' sounds promising to me. Good luck, Harry
That sounds really promising. Overall OC survival rates have been slowly improving on an annual basis since I was diagnosed at Stage 4 in late 2013.
Be careful where you take information from as many sites still quote out of date statistics ... these people have up to date stats www.cancerresearchuk.org/.../survival
These stats are only useful when applied to large numbers of patients and shouldn't ever be used to try to predict a single person's chances as our cancers and our bodies are all uniquely different.
The statistics on cancer research own site show survival rates for stage 3 oesophagus cancer have gone down. Last year it was 21% now it is 15 to 18% for 2013 to 2017.
I am aware everyone is different. It massively frustrates me the drs won't quantify what they mean by high risk. My husband was told he is at high risk of recurrence. This isn't helped by the fact he is still smoking
I had stomach cancer which follows the same treatment, I had my stomach removed and FLOT before and after surgery diagnosed in August 2018 aged 46.
ive tried to stay away from statistics as I know they never look good and frankly it scares me. My oncologist said he'd seen it return in days/weeks/months and years but it also may never return, it feels like a lottery.
on a positive note I attended my first support group a week ago, most of the people there were elderly and years past surgery, one 12 years ago, obviously they wouldn't have had FLOT which has had great results yet they're still here and living full lives, it was very uplifting.
We didn't even get that much info. The oncologists said he didn't know the % of recurrence. Which I feel is rubbish. Nor could he define what he meant by high risk of recurrence. I am taking it that its more than likely to come back. You just feel so in the dark lacking even a rough idea of the future risks
Caz68, If push comes to shove, he will give you a rough figure. Even if it is simply you asking him 'is this reasonable?' when quoting him survival rates that you obtained from the internet. Oncologists live by survival rates. It is what they base their treatment plans on. You are entitled to know what the oncologist thinks, even if it is only a ballpark figure..
I did push believe you mean but all he would give is the 50 months survival rate. Which is for all stages of oesophagus cancer not just stage 3.
I think part of the issue is flot chemo is a very new regime for oesophagus cancer.
He wouldn't even give us a rough idea what they meant by high risk. Which I find particularly fustrating as they must have some facts they base the level of risk on.
My husband waited longer than recommended to start pre op chemo and also suffered a significant almost 2 month delay starting chemo after surgery due to illness. Add to this he hasn't managed to completely give up smoking and you can see why I am concerned.
First ct was done the day after last chemo session. Showing no detectable signs of cancer. As a cancer has to be 3mm thick before it can be detected. We are cautiously optimistic with his ct result. I feel it is too soon to celebrate.
A year tomorrow since I had my op , things feel good my specialist whom I saw last week has moved my appointments from 3 months to 6 months so heading in a good direction, still have side effect issues which are announced but hey ho I'm still here thanks to the wonderful cancer unit where I had my 8 cycle of flot, and my specialist at the general and his after care team
Hi just to update everyone. Sadly my husband passed away just 2 and a bit years after diagnosis of stage 3 oesophagus cancer. Due to the pandemic the follow up care after the chemo finished was sadly lacking. Consisting of telephone calls. The tests when they happened came too late for even palliative chemo. He passed 4 weeks after being told he was terminal.
