› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Anybody had two wedge resections on same lobe?
- This topic has 9 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 4 months ago by
RJoeyB.
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- July 15, 2014 at 4:35 pm
Well, after being NED for a year and a half, it appears that I have a new lung nodule in the same lobe (left lower) from which I had one removed in 11/12. That one was a wedge resection done by VATS. Currently this nodule is small, only 4.5mm, so I imagine the docs will say wait and see if it grows. However, the chances seem really good that this is another melanoma met. I don't see either of my oncologists until next week, so I am just wondering if anyone out there has had more than one resection in the same lobe. I really like to have as much information as possible before I hear what they have to say – especially as I usually turn into some kind of blithering idiot in the oncology office! Thanks for any help/experiences you can share.
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- July 15, 2014 at 5:15 pm
Vivian, sorry to hear about this new finding, but it's good to hear that you're trying to get ahead of it. I had a 1.2-cm lung met first discovered last October. We waited and observed for six weeks and it was stable, so gave it another six weeks and it had grown slightly. At that point, I think it could have gone either way, either continuing to observe or taking some action, but we all felt there was a window of opportunity to just take care of it and be done with it, so decided to move forward and treat.
I know this isn't answering your question directly, but I wanted to offer another perspective and option that you may wish to discuss with your doctors. We consulted with the pulmonary oncologists about performing a wedge resection, but my he, my primary oncologist, and my radiation oncologist agreed that they could effectively eliminate the tumor using stereotactic radiation therapy (SBRT) in just a few sessions, without subjecting me to lung surgery and with few to no other side effects. I had five sessions of SBRT over two weeks, painless, maybe some minor fatigue, but that's it, back in February, and by April it was already showing a response on scan. There will be scar tissue that will always show up on scan, but they feel that it is effectively "ablated" and shouldn't cause any further issues – my next full-body PET is next week, so we'll confirm, but I'm feeling good about it.
I wrote a detailed response to someone else recently that you can read here:
http://www.melanoma.org/comment/76469#comment-76469
Again, just something to consider and I think worth talking to your doctors about. I hope it's helpful information.
Best,
Joe
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- July 15, 2014 at 5:15 pm
Vivian, sorry to hear about this new finding, but it's good to hear that you're trying to get ahead of it. I had a 1.2-cm lung met first discovered last October. We waited and observed for six weeks and it was stable, so gave it another six weeks and it had grown slightly. At that point, I think it could have gone either way, either continuing to observe or taking some action, but we all felt there was a window of opportunity to just take care of it and be done with it, so decided to move forward and treat.
I know this isn't answering your question directly, but I wanted to offer another perspective and option that you may wish to discuss with your doctors. We consulted with the pulmonary oncologists about performing a wedge resection, but my he, my primary oncologist, and my radiation oncologist agreed that they could effectively eliminate the tumor using stereotactic radiation therapy (SBRT) in just a few sessions, without subjecting me to lung surgery and with few to no other side effects. I had five sessions of SBRT over two weeks, painless, maybe some minor fatigue, but that's it, back in February, and by April it was already showing a response on scan. There will be scar tissue that will always show up on scan, but they feel that it is effectively "ablated" and shouldn't cause any further issues – my next full-body PET is next week, so we'll confirm, but I'm feeling good about it.
I wrote a detailed response to someone else recently that you can read here:
http://www.melanoma.org/comment/76469#comment-76469
Again, just something to consider and I think worth talking to your doctors about. I hope it's helpful information.
Best,
Joe
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- July 15, 2014 at 5:15 pm
Vivian, sorry to hear about this new finding, but it's good to hear that you're trying to get ahead of it. I had a 1.2-cm lung met first discovered last October. We waited and observed for six weeks and it was stable, so gave it another six weeks and it had grown slightly. At that point, I think it could have gone either way, either continuing to observe or taking some action, but we all felt there was a window of opportunity to just take care of it and be done with it, so decided to move forward and treat.
I know this isn't answering your question directly, but I wanted to offer another perspective and option that you may wish to discuss with your doctors. We consulted with the pulmonary oncologists about performing a wedge resection, but my he, my primary oncologist, and my radiation oncologist agreed that they could effectively eliminate the tumor using stereotactic radiation therapy (SBRT) in just a few sessions, without subjecting me to lung surgery and with few to no other side effects. I had five sessions of SBRT over two weeks, painless, maybe some minor fatigue, but that's it, back in February, and by April it was already showing a response on scan. There will be scar tissue that will always show up on scan, but they feel that it is effectively "ablated" and shouldn't cause any further issues – my next full-body PET is next week, so we'll confirm, but I'm feeling good about it.
I wrote a detailed response to someone else recently that you can read here:
http://www.melanoma.org/comment/76469#comment-76469
Again, just something to consider and I think worth talking to your doctors about. I hope it's helpful information.
Best,
Joe
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