Hi Hope~
I've been away from the board for a while, so I'm not sure if this info will be helpful to you. I hope so.
I've been doing a lot of research on RFA (RadioFrequency Ablation)to zap a single spot to my liver that has popped up & found that it can be used to address lung mets. Here's a little info from one of the RFA sites:
"RF ablation can be used for the treatment of primary and metastatic lung cancer. RF ablation has a much lower morbidity than surgery. Patients who have multiple lesions or lesions in both lungs are usually not considered for surgery. These patients are ideal for RF ablation. RF ablation of tumors can preserve more lung function than surgery. This is very important for patients with diminished lung capacity (such as current or previous smokers). In some cases the entire tumor can be ablated so that the patient is potentially free of disease. In other cases a significant reduction in tumor volume is achieved, which allows chemotherapy to be more effective. RF ablation and chemotherapy have added benefits when used in conjunction with each other. Chemotherapy makes the tumor cells more sensitive to heat, which makes ablation more successful. RF ablation is very useful in destroying the central portion of tumors. It is this area of tumors that does not respond well to chemotherapy because of decreased blood flow."
The spot in my liver was discovered after a year of NED. Initially I did 4 weeks of Taxol/Hercep & thought that did the trick, but a little spot in the center of the original lesion is showing some life again (now I know why, after reading that bit of info above) so we're going to zap it.Hopefully next Friday.
Please let me know if I can fwd a link w/all the info on RFA to you.
Keep the faith, Hope!
Jessica
jmalucas4@aol.com