My husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer . He was in a clinical trial. Six months of chemo followed by surgery. He was on many different chemo drugs. After about 5 years or so it spread to his spine . It started with his right hand becoming weak and unable to grasp things. He had surgery to remove part of the tumor followed by radiation . The radiation did not shrink the tumor. He stood up one day & fell down. The right side of his body was weak. The surgeon did a second surgery to remove the tumor again as it grew back after 3 weeks. He was finally put into hospice. He had a pet scan before the surgery onhis spine & it did not show any tumor growth. How could this have spread so rapidly. He was on erbitux, and many other chemo drugs. He was put on ketamine for pain. It was the only drug that relieved his pain.
Hello, thanks for using Chat Doctor I feel touched for your husband. Cancer is not just an ordinary disease; the pain, disability, thoughts and all the discomfort, really sad, and so I must congratulate you for enduring and being there for him because he needs you now more than ever. The discovery of a metastasis (spread of a cancer to another location) generally indicates that the disease is advanced and at this stage, the spread is rapid. The sad thing about cancer is that most cancers at the time of diagnosis are already advanced and making treatment options very limited It is hard to say which treatment is best or the permanent cure but the best thing to do will be to stick with his treating oncologist as his case is a little difficult due to the metastases. All the best Chat Doctor.