Hi

I am a new forum newbe here. Have NCSLC since late 2017 diagnosed late 2018, and 70+ year old male. The tumour is in the right lung and has been treated in 2019 with intensive Chemo combo of Carbo and Gem followed by intensive radiotherapy. The tumor was zapped and burned mostly by the radio, but it returned in the upper right suprahilar area and I then got immunotherapy as my PDL1 expression was rather high, however this also did not work after more than 20 odd weeks on it. Now I had surgery to free the blocked right bronchus pushed from outside by the tumour mass to  allow gas exchange to ease my breathing. I have noticed a benefit in the breathing but too early to say if sustainable, will probably need more.

I have been investigating the thoracoscopic surgery and understand that there is a hospital in London that has been doing this non invasive surgery for some years now. Perhaps there are other hospitals that do this near London.  However, in the main Cancer Research UK page it says that this can be done when the cancer is quite small but otherwise I will be recommended other treatments (which in my case have already been tried and failed). It is possible they say this because for larger tumours the interventional radiologist will have to make two or more trips with his probes to finish the job.

In Germany they are doing this surgery in larger tumours and they find the precision to have a high rate of success even when the tumour is nearer vital structures which while involving higher risks even of death in theater, they counter the risk of dying a bit later without taking these risks, so the risk proposed by some specialists is a no brainer if you will die soon from inaction, so there is a balance here practiced by advanced pioneer surgeons in favour of the dying patient, they may just prolong the life or even go beyond that providing a few years of living cancer free.  I am investigating these routes because I have come to the end of the road with my NHS treatment. Winding back the mental movie of the last 4 years I found the treatments restrictive and operating under some sort of straightjacket with protocols and rules and treatments where the patient has no choice and he/she is told paternalistically what is good for his condition.  In this situation my family is gathering the resources needed to go into private cancer treatment as my individual family of four cannot afford the expensive treatment but collectively my extended family can. I am shortly having a liquid biopsy to identify a number of important mutations, to guide optimum treatments and rule some of them out.

The question I'd like to put to others here in the same boat is if in their experience they know of other treatments that hold some promise and verifiable success rate and if they know by individual experience of other London hospitals (M25 corridor) that do advanced thoracoscopic surgery and ultimately if anyone can recommend a visionary pioneering oncologist with a resonable line of successes behind him/her.  I know lung cancer is one of the most difficult to treat but there are expert leaders, followers and pioneers everywhere and cancer treatment is no exception. In the 70s we had the South African Prof. Barnard RIP pioneer of heart transplants and later Prof.Magdi Jacoub RIP famous in Harefield hospital for its pioneering cardiac work when in both cases nobody else would stick their necks out for fear of the risks.

Ever since learning of my condition I have concluded that we are in the midst of a cancer epidemic with more than 300K patients and growing, and the systems not coping very well with the avalanche of cases. Covid means that some of us have died waiting for disgnoses or treatment.

Whatever you have to say I will respect your opinion and ideas and welcome it all the time.  Many thanks for responding to this initial introduction and apologies for the size.