Cancer in Oesophagus

[SpoonFullofSalt]

A close friend’s husband has just been diagnosed. It’s all new and raw, so far it looks like he’ll have chemotherapy followed by surgery but they’ve told the outlook isn’t good.
Googling has not been helpful. If anyone feels happy to share their experiences it would be useful. She knows I’ve posted on here.

My FIL had this 8 years ago. He had surgery but I can’t remember if he had radio or chemo. He took along time to recover from the op, lost a lot of weight and suffered with significant pain. But he is still with us and enjoying life again. I’m afraid I don’t know what staff it was at but I understood st the time his chances of survival were low. Good luck to your friend’s husband. Oh my FIL was mid sixties when diagnosed.

My dad died of this cancer in 2020. He was 66, physically fit and healthy. Diagnosed as stage 4. He died after 11 months.

He had about 4 months, when he was well. Then grueling treatment, feeling weak, feeding tubes. It was during covid, so his time in hospital was so cruel without us being able to visit.

The doctors kept trying, but in hindsight I wish they'd been more honest with the poor prognosis and let him come home to us.

The stage of diagnosis is very telling when you read the statistics. At stage 4 I would advise them to make the most of their time together and prepare. Theres so much my mom wished she'd asked my dad.

I'm so sorry, its an very cruel cancer.

A family member has also been recently diagnosed with this. Has had issues with swallowing for almost 2 months and has lost a lot of weight through not eating. I suspect the news won’t be good with the scans, he has a slight jaundiced tone so liver mets wouldn’t be a surprise although we remain positive it’s not got to that point.

From reading various forums and articles it appears to be similar to Ovarian in the sense that many of the symptoms could be a multitude of other issues, only once the swallowing problems start does the full scale of the situation become apparent, usually when it’s too late.

I hope they make a breakthrough in treating it more effectively with better outcomes sooner rather than later.

My dad had this 7 years ago. He had the op, but didn’t need chemo. It was a hard recovery...tiny meals etc. But now he eats as much as anyone, he just had to build up over time. He needs a high calorie diet to keep his weight up, but it’s not too difficult. He’s 79

My dad had stage 3oesophageal cancer and he has survived and is now cancer free. There is Hope. He had chemo and radiotherapy and extensive surgery.

So sorry to hear this OP.

Unfortunately I'm another bringing bad news. My dad sadly was diagnosed with this and died two months later.
However, he was already of extremely poor health, he just wouldn't have made it through the surgery alone. Was offered radiotherapy to attempt to slow down the growth but unfortunately he never got the chance to have even one session as he just wasn't strong enough. I was quite young at the time he was diagnosed and I wish I'd been told the truth of the severity of the illness as I forever thought he would get better ☹️

You sound like a lovely friend, she is lucky to have somebody so caring x

It’s not unhelpful!
you need a good immune system to cope with cancer! And what I have suggested, along with conventional medicine is very helpful indeed!

Absolutely the same for my FIL, almost word for word.
Only thing was that he’d already had bladder cancer 2 years previously. He’s 76 now. His surgery was extremely complex and risky.
I’m so sorry to read some of these stories.

I also don't think the nutritional stuff is helpfu, particularly. I have a friend with advanced oesophageal cancer and it is a case of 'eat whatever will go down'. Calories in may become far more important than nutritional quality.

It's a horrible illness and most cases are diagnosed too late for anything other than palliative treatment.

My friend did have a good 4 months or so after her first six month stint of chemo (no radio, no surgery) but then after a treatment break it begun to grow again. She is now on her second round of palliative chemo but also a lot of opioids for the pain. However she is still able to get out and about with assistance and enjoy some stuff.

I'm so sorry for your friend. Mine is a similar age as your friend's husband and was also very healthy prior.

I hope your friend is one of the ones with a hope of curative treatment but the odds are not stacked in his favour unfortunately.

I wish we had not done the surgery. In the US they only do it for cases of early diagnosis, as it's often spread to the nodes otherwise and surgery is brutal. It's a horrible disease, I'm really sorry.

Another one here without good news. I lost my brother to this a couple of years ago. He was 8 months from diagnosis to death and I’m not gonna lie, it was utterly brutal. He had to have several stents so he could eat and spent a lot of those 8 months in hospital. He had chemo which helped the mets but not the primary tumour.

He was very young for this type of cancer and was diagnosed at Stage 4 straightaway. He was very fit but this just ate him up. After 7 months his mets had pretty much taken over his entire body, bones and all.

Sadly, the fortnight leading up to his death was awful. He was in constant pain.

I really dont wish to be alarmist but please encourage your friend to make the most of this time. It’s one of the ugliest cancers there is and it’s grim. I’m sorry for your friends that they are having to deal with this 🙁

There is hope.

Friend's partner was diagnosed in his late 60's when he eventually agreed to see a doctor. The cancer was advanced and causing significant swallowing difficulties but localised. Consultants decided he was not suitable for trials and that although fit & active he was not likely to survive surgery. He was told in all probability he would have months not a year. Chemo to improve quality of life was agreed. Chemo was fabulously successful. Eighteen months on and recent tests are still clear. All his treatment was NHS.