Sorry for not updating sooner. I needed to confirm some things with the doctors out here in Houston.
Short version: My current post-surgical treatment for my former testicular cancer is surveillance. No radiation for now, no chemotherapy for now. We watch and get frequent tests, and if the cancer comes back we then treat with either radiation or chemotherapy.
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Long version
My diagnosis was Stage 1 Testicular Cancer, Seminoma. The details of the pathology report put me in Stage 1A, which is very good news.
The most common treatment path for Seminomas of this stage over the recent past has been post-surgery radiation to the abdominal area, specifically targeting certain paths the disease can travel.
Some doctors are instead doing 1 to 2 rounds of chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment.
However, many doctors have been recommending surveillance because of the risks of both radiation and chemotherapy. And over the recent past, this has become more popular. A recent paper at the nation's main oncology conference argued strongly for surveillance to be the standard treatment method for Stage 1 Seminoma using several sets of patient outcomes and statistics.
The rough numbers are that men diagnosed with Stage 1 Seminoma without radiation or chemotherapy have a 20% chance of a recurrence in the body, with an overall 99% cure/very-long-term survival. The survival numbers are the same no matter the immediate treatment path I choose.
In addition to my doctors here, I consulted via email with a well-reputed expert in testicular cancer at Indiana U.
So I am choosing surveillance. I initially wanted to be very aggressive with this cancer but changed my mind over reading on the issues.
What happens next is that every 3 months I will get blood tests, CT scan of abdomen & pelvis, and a chest x-ray. What we want them to NOT see are tumors or swelling in the lymph nodes.
With this cancer, most recurrences happen in the first two years, but I will need to watch carefully for the next 5 and still beyond into 10.
Of course, statistics are not me and so I am resting in the fact that God has my days already set. He knows when I'm going to die and how easy or hard my health journey will be going forward. He knows what pain and suffering are like because of what Jesus endured, and through that suffering he purchased my eventual healing from all the diseases and calamities of life.
I am praying that I am already cured and that God will use my cancer survival to His glory through the work we are doing with Christ and Cancer and through any other path He wants.
Thank you for your prayers for me and my family. God bless you. I will update again as conditions warrant, but our day-to-day journey is frequently updated on Matthew's page: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/matthewrager
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