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Physiology & Medicine / What happens to the content of tumors after they have been destroyed by chemo?
« on: 05/09/2009 01:48:06 »
My grandson is 18, just graduated from high school in June and moved to South Dakota to live with his mother and stepfather to attend college there. He has always been very health conscious - works out regularly and eats healthy. (He eats milk products eggs and seafood, but has never eaten meat.) A few days after he got out there, he got gastroenteritis and my daughter took him to the ER. They noticed that his neck was swollen and when they xrayed him found him to have a tumor that is wrapped around his carotid artery and jugular vein - he has another quite large one in his chest that is around his aortic arch and heart, and a third smaller one just starting on the other side of his neck. The dx is Hodgkins Lymphoma, Stage 3 (I still can't believe it.) He will not have surgery on the tumors, but will have chemotherapy every two to three weeks until January, followed by six weeks of daily radiation treatment.
Since he will not have surgery to remove the tumors, what happens to the tissue they contain after they have been killed by the treatments? I picture this big rotting mass in his chest the size of a brick and wonder how the body is able to rid itself of this without causing a massive infection?
It goes without saying that I am worried sick, regardless that Hodgkins has a high cure rate...
Since he will not have surgery to remove the tumors, what happens to the tissue they contain after they have been killed by the treatments? I picture this big rotting mass in his chest the size of a brick and wonder how the body is able to rid itself of this without causing a massive infection?
It goes without saying that I am worried sick, regardless that Hodgkins has a high cure rate...