My son is 18 yrs old with Adenocarcinoma of unknown Origin

tsmom · New User Joined: 07 Jan 2008 Posts: 5

Hello everyone,
It was great to hear your responses to Max. I had some questions too! My son was diagnosed on Nov 11th of 2007 with "Adenocarcinoma" with unknown origin. They tell me that it doesn't matter at this point its origin because he is in the highest stages of Cancer. I am not rehearsed in all this complex cancer stuff but it seems that the lining surrounding his organs is the one that is covered with tumors, also the liver has several and one "nodule" on a lung. They said there is too much to be opertable. We have asked about time and they responded, "weeks or months", nothing more. As you can see I am devasted over the news since I have one older daughter and also a younger son and the one that has given me no trouble at all is my first born son. We have gone to a state of the art hospital in Virginia and also went to Duke Medical Center in North Carolina. He is on his third chemo treatment in 53 days. Like Max's email, my son looked and felt great. It was a stomach bothersome that became hard to eat the quantity of food he was used to, so we ended having to go check it out only to be told this kind of news. In 53 days, my son has lost 51 pounds. He looks totally different! I am hoping too that just because he is suffering now, that this is also killing the cancer. He has a hard time swallowing pills so as you can imagine it is becoming extremely difficult to eat any food. I too am confused about their evaluation as to how much time, especially when there seems to be no cases in any medical journal of 17 years old contracting this cancer that seniors commonly get. Does anyone have any information that may be helpful to me? Anything regarding adenocarcinoma in the lining that covers the organs? None in the colon, pancrease, lymph nodes, and stomach. They did an upper GI and a colonoscopy and found nothing. They are pretty sure it is a digestive system related cell. I too will look into the Chinese medicine, thanks!
Please send me any information you may have to help us as we begin this journey.
Thanks to all of you for being here!
Rita

brainman

Hi Rita, I am very sorry about your son's diagnosis. Duke is a world renound medical center. Your son will receive the best treatment available to him at Duke. I am not sure what you mean by the "lining that covers the organs." What organs?

You and your son are in my thoughts and prayers.

In order not to risk "hijacking" someone elses topic, I split your reply and created a new topic just for you.
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1992 Astrocytoma grade 2, left motor strip
2005 Recurrence this time said to be an Oligodendoglioma grade 3, same location.
My Story Part 1: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=7350
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swaggerstick1 · Regular Joined: 02 Jan 2007 Posts: 14 Location: Indiana

You might want to read my story posted here on Jan 2nd 2007. I hope your outcome is better than mine was. God Bless and good luck.
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I have been through a gastrectomy in 2004. My story is posted on Jan. 2nd 2007 - Please read.

tsmom · New User Joined: 07 Jan 2008 Posts: 5

Hello Brainman,
First of all, from what I understand there is a membrane that covers the stomach, pancrease, liver and spleen. I haven't done some anatomy research but this is what has several tumors. Along with what I mentioned in my prior post. He has several lesions on the liver and one nodule in the lung. Adenocarcinoma is a pretty broad term and because they are unable to pin point its origin, we are just treating through chemo. We are very lucky to be seeing a great doctor at Duke but because we live in Virginia we have another great physician administering the follow-ups and the treatment at Children's Hospital of Kings Daughters in Norfolk, VA. If it were for medical care, my son would be doing great. Unfortunately, this is not the case. I haven't spoken to anyone that has had this cancer or knows of anyone that has had this cancer. I was told that it is prominent in older men, never in children. The doctor at Duke is the expert in older men with it and the CHKD doctor is a pediatric oncologist that has never seen this type. I was hoping through this post that someone out there has a similar situation to get a little more comparison of their treatment vs. ours. Sharing of information. Thanks for your reply.
Rita

TiredOfCancer · New User Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 2 Location: new york

Hi Rita,

I also have cancer of an unknown origin. They've classified me as "metastatic gastric cancer" with "carcinoma metastatic to the ovary of unknown primary".. in other words, they've done all sorts of test and they can't find the bastard. They only know that it spread to the ovary and after biopsy- it is suggested that it's somewhere in the gastric system, exactly where, who knows.. my oncologist also said the same thing, that it doesn't matter where the source is and the only treatment is chemo. I was given 6 months to a year to 5 years- depending on which doctor you ask (I've seen 3 different oncologists). It's been 7 months now since my first chemo treatment and I'm still here. My present oncologist has put me in an aggressive form of chemo therapy- I spent 7-10 days at the hospital every month getting 5 days continuous chemo IV. I did this for 4 months. Then I did 2-day-straight, 6 treatment chemo every 2 weeks to treat the ovary specifically since that's the only place that's certain of cancer. The last CT scan showed that the tumor that was in my other ovary has shrunk and gone but my oncologist has pretty much told me that it's not a guarantee that I'm out of the woods since they don't know where it started. I live each day thinking that I'm going to beat the odds and live longer- I'm 31. I know how frustrating it is to live with cancer that can not be found, sometimes you wonder if it had a solid label the doctors could treat you better.. but you can't let it over-take you, it's all about positive thinking and thinking that you're going to beat it no matter what it is.

I've given up looking at statistics- I don't fit any of it- I never showed symptoms, I'm not male in my 50s.. don't look at statistics as a marker... with cancer like your son and mine, we make our own statistic- so you have to, have to believe that you're gonna make it alright. Don't try to understand why this is happening, focus on one day at a time and overcoming the side effects of the chemo. I hope things go well with your son.. keep faith and hope.

M.

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