Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 6/29/2007

Question
My 93 year old very active father (still drives, plays bridge, marches in parades) just had laproscopic colon cancer surgery to remove a large tumor that was ready to obstruct.  The cancer had spread through the colon into the muscle of the abdomen; there are also cancer nodes in the liver and possibly the lung.  He has made a great recovery; although he did have a blood clot go to the lung and now he is on coumadin.  Now we must go to the oncologist.  In the hospital he briefly told me about all the great chemotherapy available.  From what I have read this would give him a lot of misery and only about 3-4 months more of life.  His surgeon has told him he has about 8-12 months to live; although of course, the surgeon says no one knows for sure.  I do not want my dad to suffer.  Any advice?

Answer
Without really knowing your father this is a very hard question to respond to. Yes chemo therapy can NOT at present cure him. But it may very well prolong his survival by actually quite some time. I can not give you any sure predictions since there are many individual variations. But a prolongation by many months or even a year or more is at least not impossible. Yes chemo therapy often have strong even sometimes severe side effects BUT not always! Sometimes they are not that bad and often the chemo therapy will also relieve the patient of some not rarely rather nasty tumor symptoms! So actually your father may be better off with therapy than without it! But of course I can not guarantee that. Finally, this must be HIS choice! Especially if he is such an active man! But of course he can only do that if fully informed!