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BAC

2 Recommendations

How many of you have been diagnosed with BAC. ?

Are you watching and waiting and watching to see if the tumors are growing or staying put? What type of treatment are you receiving for it? I just would love to hear from any of you that have been diagnosed with bronchoalveolar carcinomas

thanks diane

64 replies

I am not waiting for anything but trying to live each day to the fullest. My nodule was cut out (no chemo or radiation)and i will now have scans every six months and hope for the best. I sense by your posts that you are really scared and i fully understand where you are coming from but try not to drive yourself crazy trying to find all the answers because you never will. Have you been to an oncologist? If not, please make an appt to see one and go in with a comprensive list of your questions and he/she should be able to give you some peace of mind. My personal email is martaunker@yahoo.com if you ever need to talk.

BAC has me. I have had chemo, radiation and 40% of my right lug removed. I currently have an inoperable tumor. Thursday I will start LDA.
I agree with Munker. Enjoy the moment. Everyday has a lot of moments. Take some to enjoy.
Jim

Hi Jim

What is 1B, I was told that it is very slow growing and that chemo did not work on it. Do you have bac multifocal.? So when you had surgery, did they remove it all and get all the cancer? I dont understand, My cancer doctor told me I would be around for a long time with the type of cancer I have. He did say there are some that are faster growing, so hope that yours and mine is not the fast growing type. Let me know the story on yours. I am sure they can get it under control. We all have to hang in there. diane

Jim I also have a high amount of radon in my home and I am having someone come into my home tomorrow to put the exhaust system in.

A true bac usually just stay on the air sacs and does not spread anywhere else, that is why they dont like to take to much lung out , its best to have good lung tissue left in there.

How long before you discovered the new tumor and how big is it. It will be fine.

diane

I wish I knew how to edit a post!
I meant to key I will start LDN (low dose Naltrexone) on Thursday
Jim

Diane,
1B was the stage of the BAC prior to having the first tumor (9cm) and some lung removed. The surgeon told me he got "clear margins" I believe it was 6 month before the new tumor in the Medialstenium showed up. I believe BAC does not travel in the blood. The Medialstenium is between the lungs it is where the esophagus is. As a matter of fact the tumor is leaning against the esophagus. My understanding is that the BAC got there without blood transport. I believe the tumor is about 3 X 5 cm.
Jim

Hi Jim, I guess I dont understand about the blood thing, so is the new tumor bac , I know you can have different kind of tumors and also you can have a tumor with bac... it gets so confusing. Why cant they take it out.

Diane

Hi
I think inoprable depends on how much lung you have left to function on.
I had to be evaluated before they would do surgery.
I had to pass different test before they would do surgery.
I had 85% blockage in my left lung .
I did not even know it .
Anyway gettin back to the surgery cut all the cancer out.
Guess thst is why God gave us two of some things .
I had my left lung removed in 2006 and I walk an talk an breath .
I don't spell to good but I dont think that has any thing to do with Cancer.
I hate Chemo And will never know weather it did good or not .
Hope the best for you .
Greg

Hi Greg.
Well it sounds like your doing pretty good, always good to hear from someone has. I agree with you spelling has nothing to do with cancer. lol...

I just always freak out and just cant seem to get this cancer thing off of my mind. I hate it. Its been 2 months now since my surgery and still have a cough and burning in my back where they took out my lobe on the right side.

I just would like to be normal. like all of us on here.

diane

Diane
My understanding is the medialstenium is connective tissue and surgeons don't go there. The hart is in there and they mess with that... but will not go tumor hunting in there. I am not sure if it is BAC they haven't gotten any to test.
Jim

well lets hope the treatment you are going to have will zap it. Let me know if they decide that its bac, I would think it would be unusual to have it there, but who knows...

I will say a prayer for you...

diane

Hello Diane,

My cancer was adenocarcinoma with BAC features. I think that Dr. West has some good articles on the Grace website about BAC. Apparently there is pure BAC which is pretty rare and then there are all sorts of variations on that. My tumor was not that aggressive as far as we know - probably because of the BAC features aspect of it. I had it in my lung for at least six years that I could feel before it was taken out. Sharon

Hi, well it sounds like your doing well, thats good. If you read any of Dr Wests articles, he advises to wait and watch the bac, so that is what my doctor says too. its just all to scary for me. Since my bac is multifocal, doing surgery again, would not be of much help. So I am hoping that this horrible thing will not grow, it will just stay put. He also does not think that going to extremes on the diet helps either, although I dont know how much research they have done, he said a good healthy diet is what to do. So its hard to know how much you should change in your diet, I have tried all kinds of things, nothing tastes good to me. I have given up soda, sugar, sweets, alot of things. no fun to eat any more.

My prayers are with you.

we will beat this.

diane

My wife was diagnosed with BAC Stage 4 on January 11, 2007. Their was a scattering of nodules, about 20 in both lungs. The initial Dr. said she had less than 90 days to live. She is currently taking 150mg of Tarceva on Sunday and Thursday, and 100 mg the other days of the week. She just finished ironing and is on her way to Wal-mart to shop.....

Never give up hope, many, many new drugs. She is taking a break from the Avastin because combined with the Tarceva it made her very tired.

She doesn't have the rash anymore, but the diarrha is still there, funny the things you hope for....

Hugs all around.
bob

Hi Bob:

Well it sounds like she has more than 90 days to me lol... How did you find out she had it? It is very slow growing and I had a cough and they caught it kind of early, but since mine in multifocal, I had one surgery and really cannot have any more, they say it does not do much good, cause those specs are all over. But they did tell me they though I had a long time to live. But who knows. I have only had my surgery in nov and I get my first scan march. I also know that one of the margins were not clear, on the one they wedged out but the other margins were all clear. so who knows. I am glad she is at walmart. good sign.

diane

keep me posted

She was being treated for asthma for about a year when her lungs began to fill up with fluid and had to be drained. The initial fluid showed no cancer cells, but a procedure to take a small piece of the lung out to test it revealed stage 4 BAC! She had also been walking down the street, on the sidewalk, when a kid on a bike ran into her and hurt her bad enough to require massive shoulder surgery. She should have recovered from that in 90 days, but it took a year, the same year they were treating her for asthma. It was awful, we thought the asthma and the surgery were just getting her down, but it was cancer. We had high radon levels in our house, about 8 to 12 and I should have fixed it, because we sleep downstairs. If you have radon problems, do whatever you can to fix now! I wonder if it has hurt me, a former smoker (I quit 20 years ago--from a three pack a day habit, if I can quit, anyone can quit), I had a chest xray and it was all clear. We are young! Wife is currently 48 and I'm 49. The wife retired from State Government job at 46 (she went to work there right out of high school) and got sick shortly after, I wonder if the bike wreck started the problem or just revealed it, the 15 year old on the bike took off and left her there on the sidewalk. It was so bad people in cars stopped to help! Her father passed away 6 months ago after battling bone marrow cancer for 10 years--he had a successful stem cell replacement that added 8 years to his life, but cancer does run in her family.

Aside from fatigue, it's almost like she doesn't have cancer, but she does have some bad days and her emotions are all over the place.....

The only thing I might have done different up to this point is go to a major cancer center (we are in Huntsville, Alabama) such as MD Anderson for a evaluation, but she would have no part of it, too many doctors! US News and World reports does an an excellent article every year on the top cancer centers in the country, well worth a look up at your local library. We have excellent insurance with her retirement, so money is only a small factor.

Good luck and talk to you soon.

bob

well it sounds like she has had her share of health issues and that is horrible to hit someone and then just take off.. what is the matter with people nowadays.
So when does she get another scan.?

I am glad that she feels ok and I know about the emotions, mine are all over the place too...

I wake up at night and cant get back to sleep just lay there and worry. I think about this cancer 24/7.

I have to go back to work end of month and I am so far behind on everything, no paycheck for almost 3 mos, your lucky your wife had such a good retirement.

Well keep me posted and you both are in my thoughts and prayers.

diane

She goes for a scan Thursday, her first since before Xmas and we get the results Monday.

Pray for the best.

Thanks,
bob

I will say a prayer for her.. let me know how it turns out. I know this is the worst time for us. And we hold our breath until we find out. What a way to live.

diane

Hi, I was just wondering how your wifes scan turned out, you said she was getting it done jan 20th.

I hope the news was good.

diane

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