Burn then Poison : A Cancer Treatment

After successful awake brain surgery the biopsy results are in and the doctors’ view unanimous — it’s now time for the burn and poison phase of traditional cancer treatment. In more technical terms, that’s Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy.

My wife Tara’s tumour has been confirmed a Grade 3 Oligodentroglioma, which means it’s impossible to completely remove through surgery and that at the rate it’s growing the cancer will likely take her life within 2 to 5 years.

Five years ago when Tara was very first diagnosed with a Grade 2 tumour we were told that Chemo or Radiotherapy would not extend her lifespan. These kinds of treatments were more about managing the side effects of a tumour, but unfortunately both options come with some pretty nasty side effects themselves. Based on that, we decided to work on lifestyle changes to offset any tumour growth and pursue alternative therapies. While those therapies may have helped slow things down, the fact remains it hasn’t made the dirty lump go away. So, now we’re returning to what’s termed as ‘standard care’. The good news is that there have been plenty of developments in the last 5 years in brain cancer treatment. Studies show that if you have certain molecules inside your tumour then you’re much more likely to react well to treatment. Tara’s tumour has all of these positive traits. Other longterm studies released recently also show that a combination of radio and chemotherapy together does significantly improve a brain tumour patient’s life span — on average by double. That’s not quite the magic cure most cancer patients hope for, but it does buy valuable time to live. It also allows more time for that allusive break through the scientific community has been searching for since people started dying of this horrible disease.

The recommendation now is that Tara go into 6 weeks of radiation (5 days a week). After that she’ll get a month’s break before going into a maximum of 6 rounds of chemo. Each round lasts 6 weeks. If you’re good at maths you will have figured out that’s close to a year of treatment — A year of putting your body through hell, so that hopefully you can buy some more years when you come out the other end.

It’s not an easy choice, no matter what kind of carrot is being offered. When you’re told this won’t cure you and that the extra time you buy may only amount to a couple more side-effect ridden years, it makes the decision even harder.

We’re not totally convinced, but we’ve decided to give it a go…

The basic analogy we’re using is that of a rusting car. The longer you leave things, the worse the problem will get. Catch things early and not only do you have a better shot at fixing things, but the car should look and work better in the long run as well. Tara is pretty much a Ferrari now, so we want to keep her that way if we can. We’d rather Tara go in while she’s healthy enough to take treatment on with strength, and also while the tumour is small enough that radio and chemo is more likely to be effective. We are running a risk that in the meantime a less-toxic, proven treatment for cancer emerges and that we’ve pulled out the atom bomb before we needed to. But, it feels like that risk is very small.

After meeting with a radiotherapist this week, things are booked in to start treatment on March 29th. Initially they wanted to start within 3 weeks, which is the minimum time needed to prepare meticulously for targeting and dosage. However, we’ve pushed things out a couple of extra weeks, so Tara can further work on her fitness before heading in. After pregnancy and then brain surgery she’s still fairly weak, maybe 70% of what she normally is. So, she needs that extra time to physically and psychologically prepare for battle mode. We’re hoping this will help offset the worst side effects during treatment. Fatigue, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, hair loss and skin irritations are the common potential side effects of radiotherapy. I was very disappointed that radiation would not give her super powers. The less-common list of side effects is too massive to write here, but potential hearing loss and long-term creation of new tumours are a couple of choice examples. This is just radiotherapy too, chemo is a whole other ball game. There you’re also looking at things like fatigue, memory loss, problems concentrating and hair loss, as well as higher risk of infection, long term kidney and liver problems, early onset of menopause, lung problems, mouth ulcers, osteoporosis and more. But, you’re also looking at a longer life. A longer life. A longer life. The benefits outweight the risks. We hope.

The other thing that the extra weeks give us is time to organise more practical issues, like how does Tara get to the hospital an hour away, 5 days a week? Who looks after our two kids while I work and she’s in treatment? If I take Tara to the hospital, or look after the kids, how do we maintain cashflow to keep food on the table? Who cooks that food? Does Tara have to put both of her businesses on hold for a full year? The list goes on. We’re very fortunate that we have an amazing group of family and friends to help support any schedule we put in place. There’s also the plus that I work freelance, so have very flexible hours. It won’t be easy, but we’ll sort it out. The main thing is focussing on getting Tara better and looking forward to the good things in life. I’m already planning a family trip between radiation and chemotherapy. Little goals and big ones are what keep us sane right now. It’s all a work in progress.

Life is a series of ‘to be continued’ . . .