Metastatic: 23 Real Stories
23 stories match metastatic. 13 of them mention surgery.
Gastric Cancer: Christopher’s Survivor Story
Christopher Lynch was 51 when a headache, vomiting, difficulty eating, and balance problems led him to seek care in early 2016. An endoscopic procedure found stomach cancer, and an MRI then showed a large, deep tumor in his left cerebellum. The brain tumor…
Read this storyLung Cancer: Xavier’s Patient Story
In spring 2022, Xavier Sanders was placed on Air Force reserve duty after repeatedly testing positive for COVID-19. Further evaluation found a spot in his lung, and a follow-up 3 months later showed that it had doubled in size. Biopsy confirmed cancer, and a…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Jan’s Survivor Story
Jan Holgersson was 59 when he reflected on colorectal cancer diagnosed at age 55. He had lived with persistent diarrhea for more than 6 months but did not take it seriously until the symptoms worsened. Hospital testing found cancer, and he initially feared…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Holger’s Survivor Story
Holger Pfleger was 73 when he looked back on advanced rectal cancer diagnosed in 2004. Two years earlier, a screening colonoscopy had not found anything suspicious. Later he developed diarrhea and weight loss, and a second colonoscopy found a low rectal…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Amalia’s Survivor Story
Amalia Spatz was 71 when rectal cancer entered a life already shaped by widowhood, family, and work behind her. She first noticed growing weakness and exhaustion and thought a medication might be the cause. After she was taken to hospital, many tests were…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Leon’s Patient Story
Leon Gerspacher was 20 when fatigue and digestive problems led to colonoscopy and CT scans that found rectal cancer. He was a science student and living with his girlfriend, and the diagnosis quickly changed his plans. Initial treatment used radiation therapy…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Ingrid’s Survivor Story
Ingrid Weis was 52, married, and raising 3 children when rectal cancer was found. Her first sign was blood in the toilet, which she initially thought might be hemorrhoids. Colonoscopy instead showed a tumor in the rectum. After further testing, treatment…
Read this storyCancer Patient Story
A woman living with advanced cancer did not want the diagnosis to force her into a completely different way of thinking about life. Cancer made her think about illness, but she still wanted to live as normally as possible. She knew there was almost no hope of…
Read this storyBreast Cancer Patient Story
This woman had been living with breast cancer for 7.5 years after her first diagnosis. During that time, the cancer recurred or metastasized twice. Early on, she approached surgery and treatment with a practical mindset, telling herself that the diagnosis had…
Read this storyTriple-Negative Breast Cancer: Valerie’s Survivor Story
Valerie Hamilton was 56 when she was diagnosed with locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer. The tumor was large, and doctors outside MSK had told her she would need a mastectomy. That possibility felt overwhelming: Valerie loved her body and worried…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Danny’s Survivor Story
Danny Soto was used to danger as a firefighter, but colon cancer felt different because the disease had taken his father’s life. His case was aggressive and complex. Before he came to Memorial Sloan Kettering, treatment at another hospital left him weak, sick…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Chrystie’s Patient Story
Chrystie was 30 when severe pain led to hospitalization in March 2007. She was initially diagnosed with diverticulitis and spent months moving in and out of the hospital, including weeks of intravenous antibiotics at home. When she returned with severe pain…
Read this storyGastric Cancer: Alan’s Patient Story
Alan Salm, known as Al, was diagnosed with stomach cancer in spring 2019. He received chemotherapy every 2 weeks for 2 years while continuing to travel and make memories with his wife and teenage son. Surgeons later attempted to remove his stomach, but the…
Read this storyGastric Cancer Patient Story
Amy Marshall’s mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer after the disease had already spread. Her illness progressed quickly, and she died in 2003. The loss deeply affected Amy, who described her mother as both her parent and her best friend. Years later…
Read this storyGastric Adenocarcinoma: Donny’s Patient Story
Donny had experienced symptoms since 2004, but repeated endoscopy, colonoscopy, ultrasound, and X-ray examinations did not identify the cause. Years later, he left work feeling severely ill with what seemed like flu. The next morning, he was taken to the…
Read this storyGastric Cancer Patient Story
Dan Kane’s sister was affected by gastric cancer within a family carrying hereditary stomach-cancer risk. She initially received advice to undergo only partial gastrectomy. The cancer later returned. She then underwent total gastrectomy, when the family…
Read this storyLung Cancer: Diego’s Patient Story
Diego wrote this entry after more than a month away from the blog, describing a difficult but meaningful pause in his lung cancer course. He had spent about 10 days hospitalized because pain in the hip and left iliac region had become unbearable. Chemotherapy…
Read this storyLung Cancer Patient Story
This Noxte entry described a rapid change in treatment after a difficult scan. Oncology moved the patient’s planned June CT earlier to 25 May and also scheduled him to see his oncologist the same day. The reason became clear: the laboratory accepted an…
Read this storyLung Cancer Patient Story
This Noxte entry reported a clear setback. On 12 April, the patient received CT results showing that the lung tumor was still growing. The right upper-lobe mass had increased from 4.9 by 5 cm to 5.7 by 6.5 cm. It was causing more narrowing of the apical…
Read this storyLung Cancer Patient Story
By January 2016, this Spanish lung cancer blogger was marking 2 years of survival while facing a new treatment setback. Recent bronchoscopy and blood testing confirmed that the cancer had developed resistance, including the T790M mutation. That finding…
Read this storyLung Cancer Patient Story
In January 2016, this lung cancer patient learned that a recent CT scan explained his worsening cough. The scan showed clear progression: the right upper-lobe mass had grown to about 4.9 x 5 cm, with extension to the visceral pleura, involvement around the…
Read this storyGastric Cancer: Sandra’s Patient Story
Sandra Sankar Poukkula was diagnosed with gastric cancer in 2011. She became proactive about stomach-cancer awareness and research as her family sought answers about a pattern of young gastric-cancer deaths. Sandra underwent total gastrectomy in an effort to…
Read this storyGastric Cancer Patient Story
Jessica’s mother was diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer in the summer of 2004 after an endoscopy for persistent gastrointestinal pain. She underwent surgery that removed two-thirds of her stomach and one-third of her esophagus. Recovery was complicated by…
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