Hi has anyone survived this after being told they can’t have surgery due to distant lymph node above collarbone involved? Fit and healthy otherwise, so been a complete shock.
I was diagnosed with T3N3M1 and given a prognosis of between 2 and 6 months without chemo and up to 18 months with - in October 2013. Surgery and radiotherapy were ruled out because the primary had grown around my aorta.
The survival rate at the time was 3% for 5 years. Survival rates have slowly increased since then and our cancer is one of conditions CRUK is striving to improve diagnosis, treatment and outcomes for as a priority.
Being fit and well should help your body tolerate and complete the planned treatment. My case is unusual, but not unique. A couple of years ago I attended a CRUK conference as a patient rep. There was a conference dinner in the evening with no formal seating plan. By coincidence, both people sat next to me were stage 4 OC survivors more than ten years post-treatment.
I have just been so very, very, lucky. My oncologist prescribed the right chemo for me, I was fit enough to tolerate the high dosage, my T cell count remained high which helped avoid pneumonia or similar and then inexplicably my cancer continued to shrink for a year after my chemo ended. I’m told that my immune system probably learnt to identify the cancer cells and attack them - but no-one knows for sure.
Best wishes - I hope his treatment goes well. Dave
