My husband has been diagnosed with small cell and did very well with chemo but it grew back in about 4 or 5 weeks. Liver cleared up and some healing in bones but the lung came back twice the size since he stopped chemo in Feb. He feels his oncologist has given up on him and she sent him to do radiation. The last test showed it in brain in about 5 or 6 spots. Do you feel it would be any benefit to get him into a clinical trial and see a new onc.?
Thanks for your question on Chat Doctor. I can understand your situation and problem. Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is very aggressive cancer of lung. It is very notorious in distal spread and local recurrence. It is highly responding to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. But at the same time it again grows very fast. This is the nature of SCLC. And since your husband is taking chemotherapy and developed local site relapse, this suggests chemotherapy is not giving him benefit. So radiotherapy should be started. And no harm in enrolling in clinical trial or consult other oncologist. But at the same time you should be aware of end result. Life expectancy in SCLC is less than 12-15 months. You have to accept the fate.