I was diagnosed with Thymic Carcinoma in July 2002 after my Doctor noticed something in the front of my neck. After an ultrasound in emergency they found that I had blood clots in my juggular vein and a vein across my shoulder. I was only 39 and when they did the CT scan they found that I had a tumour the size of a tennis ball that had wrapped itself around my superior vena cava (which caused the blood clots). It took 34 days to diagnos and then I had to remain on blood thinner shots (one a day to my tummy)until they decided if surgery was an option after they tried to shrink the tumour. I had 31 radiation treatments, 2 rounds of 3 days each with Cisplatin and Etopaside (I had an allergic reaction to the base that they put the chemo in and was very sick). Then they switched me to Doxil for another 4 rounds. I then had surgery in May 2003(which involved breaking my breast bone)to remove my thymus gland, the tumour, some of the outer lining of my heart and part of my right lung. Because of the radiantion and chemo the bone in my chest hasn’t healed as of December 1, 2003. They just found a nodule on my right lung and did a needle byopsy and I’m waiting for the results. I am staying positive and hoping that this will be over soon.
jhornagain@hotmail.com
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October 2004
This is an update.
The nodule on my right lung turned out to be two nodules that are both thymic carcinoma. The cancer is now in my blood stream and so I also have a small tumour in my left chest wall. I have had another 10 radiantion treatments 5 on my back to try to reach the tumours on my lung and 5 on my left chest. I have also had another 6 rounds of chemotherapy which did not work. The tmours seemed to grow during chemo which of course is not a good thing. My oncologist now has me on an experimental drug called Irressa, they have had some success with Irressa for small cell lung cancer and now they are trying it on some thymic carcinoma patients. I feel very positive about this new drug and am hoping it will help put this nightmare to rest for some time.