I have an new update from my original request for feedback which was under rectal cancer metasis to spine/bone cancer, now metasis to abdomincal lymph node (two) cancer and watching for lung cancer. feedback. My father is on Saltz Regime once a week for four weeks and then two weeks off. He has been told he has two floating lymph nodes in the abdomen which have cancer and two slightly unusual areas on one lung which they are watching and are not sure. They have told Dad as long as he can handle the chemo (his only option) that they are positive it will get the cancer tumors but not the spine bone tumor.
Can anyone please give me feedback on Saltz Regime, info on abdomen lymph node cancer, and what shows on an xray for lung cancer?
Dad started chemo on Wed and was pain free for two days (now 90mg am and pm) and then got very nauseous and tired and was admitted today for dehydration and they postphoned his chemo treatment tomorrow.

Please give me feedback. Thank you. ME - Worried Daughter.

Articles/clinical trials testing new therapies versus Saltz Regimen [the current gold standard]:
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/may2002/nci-18.htm
http://www.cancer.gov/templates/doc.aspx?viewid=6A2862C9-B2A4-4A49-AA6E-F212C64AA1D4

X-ray images:
MedLinePlus only has illustrations of colon/colorectal cancers and staging [III - lymph node involvement]. For x-ray and other diagnostic imaging, suggest you try a CME [Continuous Medical Education] site designed for radiologists/radiation oncologists. The only CME I'm familiar with that occasionally includes x-ray images is at emedicine. Another option is med school radiology/radiation oncology departments - try the larger schools [Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Tufts, U. Penn, etc.]. Otherwise case studies.

Good luck,
Jay

Thank you Jay. I will follow up on your advice; I had no experience with cancer metastis and really don't know where to start look. But I am trying to get as much info as I can to give ideas for questions for my mom to follow up with the doctors. Have you ever heard of radiation causing the tumors? Can they tell the difference without a biopsy? ME

I'm a parent of a child who had a leukemia so my general knowledge of tumour cancers is pretty limited. However, we were told by our HEM/ONCs that radiation therapy can cause tumours but usually this would happen several years later.

The variables are: the type of radiation used, the total amount of radiation, the radiation dose per exposure, and the types of meds also present during radiation therapy. [Some chemo meds interact more strongly/synergistically with radiation.]

The tumours could therefore be the normal progression of the disease or a by-product/side-effect of therapy.

Thanks for your quick response. I am so sorry to hear about your child having Leukemia - that is sadder than anything! My dad had radiation after chemo two years ago and the radiation damaged 50% of his upper and lower bowel resulting in bowel surgery to bypass the damaged areas. After his initial surgery for the tumor which had ruptured, they believed they got it all by removing most of the rectal muscle and lymph nodes and doing a colostomy. Eighteen months ago, my father felt a sharp pain in his lower back when he bent over to change a tire and the pain has been there worsening ever since. We wondered if the radiation could have caused the tumors on his spine and lymph nodes. His buttocks are still black/red all over since the treatment and it was severe enough to have burnt his privates. This might make a difference if the tumors they are finding now aren't from the rectal cancer and the pain is from maybe a pulled apart bowel adhered to the spine. The doctors won't consider this a possibility. Any ideas?

Sorry - no substantive ideas to offer.

Try some of the U.K. and European sites for ideas - specifically hyperbarics to assist in the delivery of drugs to bone for some bone cancers. The rationale for hyperbaric is that by increasing atmospheric pressure to 1.5 to 2.0 normal, the drug is physically forced to penetrate those tissues whose membranes [under normal atmospheric pressure] would not allow enough of the drug to enter.

OPG [a bone metabolism hormone/compound] is another route to explore, assuming your father's condition is somehow related to this metabolic process. [I believe that some of the OPG research was conducted at U of T.]