chemotherapy for pleural effusion Posted: 01-23-08 02:07am
Hi, my mother was diagnosed with stage-IV
ovarian cancer, in the first week of
december. She had massive pleural effusion
in the left lung. However, her abdomen was
clear.The doctor said that she cannot be
operated right away and she'll have to go
through 3 cycles of chemotherapy( Taxol
and Carboplatin) before .
She has been given 2 doses since then with
little effect on the pleural effusion.The
fluid keeps coming back even after
tapping.However, her CA-125 level has
dropped significantly to about half the
original value.
I'm not able to decide whether these are
positive signs or not and whether there
are any chances of recovery.
Plese help me out......
|
MandMs
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 1857 Location: Strumica, Macedonia
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Posted: 01-25-08 04:54am
Like all cancers, this one is most
dangerous when discovered late. Hope of a
cure in the most advanced stage (stage IV)
is only 5 percent (only about 5 percent of
those diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian
cancer will survive for five years).
Your mother has pleural effusion due to
cancer cells spread to the lungs (finding
ovarian cancer cells in the fluid around
the lungs, called pleural fluid is also
evidence of stage IV disease).
Stage IV ovarian cancer means that the
cancer has spread to the inside of the
liver, the lungs, or other organs located
outside of the abdominal cavity.
Because of that, stage IV ovarian cancer
is difficult to completely remove with
surgery and the currently available
chemotherapy is unable to eradicate all of
the remaining cancer cells (chemotherapy
is usually give after surgery, but also,
can be received before to have a chance to
further decrease the amount of cancer)
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