Stage 2a adenocarcinoma cervical ca

Hi I m jus diagnosed with Stage 2A adenocarcinoma.

i am quite worry as the cancer has reach the vagina. The surgeon said adenocarcinoma is not too responsive to chemo radiation that squamous. They would not offer me a surgery if is stage 2a.

can I get advice on what's your treatment and how's the prognosis?

SusanxX

Hi Susan. I had adenocarcinoma, a 1b1 tumour, but with a lymph node affected which meant no surgery. I had chemo radiation and brachytherapy and finished last November. So far so good - although I'm always cautious saying that! My consultant never suggested that adenocarcinoma was less responsive than squamous to chemorads, and my tumour had gone before I'd finished the chemorads. I know there are some rumours that adeno carries greater risk, but that wasn't the opinion at my hospital and it isn't borne out by the experiences I have read on here. I think that adenocarcinoma carries a greater risk of spread to lymph nodes at an earlier stage than usually seen in squamous, but they will check this and treat it if necessary - in fact, the chemorads will deal with a wider area than surgery would and the chemo will go right through your system, so it's a good treatment. 

Anne x

Hi Anne,

Hugs to you. Thanks so much for such an encouraging news! 

I was so loss when I got diagnosed with adenocarcinoma. how was the chemoradiation? Was it painful? How did u try to overcome those side effects? can you recall what's the chemo and radio regimen u had?

Hope to keep in touch. 

Best wishes

susan 

 

 

There are a few ladies on here that had adenocarcinoma, so it's not that uncommon. I was scheduled for 5 chemo treatments (cisplatin), but only did 4 as my white blood cells were too low towards the end - it seems to be quite common to miss out one chemo if your system starts playing up, so don't panic if that happens. My chemo was always on a Friday and it was a full day, with my radiation treatment fitted in. Different hospitals organise it differently, so you may find that you're not there all day. Still, take a book, kindle whatever, to occupy you. It's usually the case that you can have a visitor on the day chemo ward, but actually the staff, tea ladies and other patients are always chatty if you want a chat. The chemo wards are not the scary, bleak places we imagine! I had 28 radiotherapy sessions. These were painless and the actual 'zapping' takes 5-10 mins: it's a case of lying down, being arranged so the beams hit the right area, the staft leave the room, then you gaze at the ceiling while the machine whirres round you, and then off you pop! There will be days when they scan you first, just to check the line ups are still accurate, or days when they will want you to just get a check up from your team or have bloods done. These days will be longer, but you quickly get into a routine and will feel well looked after. I suffered nausea and fatigue and a bit of bowel 'urgency' after the first week, but not pain. A lot of women don't have too much trouble so everyone's different. Your medical team will have ideas to sort out any problems, so just tell them if anything crops up. I did use an organic baby balm on my sensitive bits, applied it after every radiation blast and seemed to avoid any soreness there. I lastly had brachytherapy, which was in no way as bad as I imagined it would be - this seems to be the case with everyone on here, so put that bit out of mind until the rest is done and then go into it feeling positive, as it will be fine. There are a few treatment diary type write ups on the forum, which will give you lots of tips. Essentially, do not Google...ask everything on here, as there's always someone who has experienced similar and will be honest, but positive in their answer. Google is just a huge pot of scary stories, and no one needs those! Take it a day at a time, you can absolutely do this.

Anne x

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