The Way Forward

OK, test are done. Cancer is staged. I am a Phase 2, T3, N1 adenocarcenoma of the esophagus cancer patient. A new title to add to my resume!

During the diagnosis phase of this adventure, there were many gyrations as to how to proceed with the cure. The first course discussed was surgery then chemo/radiation. The notion was that the cancer had not progressed past the esophagus & stomach so removal of the infected area was a good way to start. Then get rid of any nasty's roaming around my body with the chemo and bombard the area where it formally resided to get rid of any cancer cells that may have been left behind from the surgery. This went by the wayside as all the results came in and recently published studies were looked at.

Now the way forward is to start with chemo for a couple of cycles (each cycle is about a month long). This will be followed by a couple more chemo cycles and 25 rounds of radiation. Radiation will be given daily, 5 days a week (weekends off) for 5 weeks. Then surgery when all this is done. I'm not sure what the follow-on to surgery will be yet. I guess we'll find out!