I found out my tumor in my left thigh is 10cm yesterday. So far it isn’t in my lungs I get my pet scan wed. They are giving me 2 options. Full blown chemo and radiation then surgery, or radiation with a trickle of chemo. I don’t know what to do. They said there not even sure how much chemo will help. Since its localized in one spot I don’t know if I want full blown chemo . They are confident they can get it out but it is on my femoral nerve and arterie. They talked about leg function or bypassing the atrerie if they have to. I don’t want to put myself threw chemo if its might not even do anyting. I was planning on having another child. But I’m reading chemo can make you infertile. Is it worth the risk? I have to decide by Thursday…
You should mention to your doctors about you wanting another child. They can freeze your eggs for later. This should be done before the start of chemo, if you decide to go through it. 10cm is already big. You do not want to play around with this tumor. If you do not try the full blown chemo, will you regret it if your SS metastasize later? That's the question you have to ask yourself and you should be comfortable with your answer.
My tumor is 6cm, and in my right thigh. I just completed 25 rounds of radiation. I have surgery next week to remove the tumor. A couple spots on my lungs showed up on my PET scan, but they are just going to keep an eye on them. I had the choice of chemo as well, but after a lot of consideration and prayer, I decided not to do it at this point. All my oncologists have said that they don't think that I need chemo right now. If something changes with the spots on my lungs, then they will worry about it then. Chemo or no chemo is a hard decision, but since in my case it is also localized, and they can get it with radiation and surgery, I decided to stay away from chemo.
Hello, I had a similar decision to make. My sarcoma was in my left arm diagnosed 5 years ago. I was able to have lupron injections that essentially shuts everything down temporarily. Once a month you get the injection and then after chemo they stop them and periods return to normal. By shutting the system down you can protect your eggs. I did not have the chance to do egg retrieval as I had to do surgery/radiation/chemo immediately. I would probably not chance skipping chemo. I won’t lie it sucks but you don’t have the what if question always in your mind. If you want to talk through anything let me know!
My tumor was on the outside of my lung 10cm. I had surgery to remove it along with a 1/3 of my lung removed then radiation. Then chemo. It wasnt so bad. Losing my hair was the worst i think. I wanted to do every thing offered to me as i wanted not to be sorry later that i didnt try all options to fight this terrible disease. Fight like a girl! That was and is always going to be what i live by now 
Hello Alison,
When my (léïomyo)sarcoma was discovered and after the surgery which cleaned totally my tumor, doctors wandered if chemo was necessary. I strongly hoped not to have it, but I did (doxorubicine) !
It was in 2005. Then I had two years free from cancer, until little lungs mets were discovered. Thinking about all this and knowing what I learned about all along these years, I'm happy for having done this chemo, because if I would not, I would certainly had mets sooner, and bigger.
Do they want to give you ifosfamide ? Like Elodie said, you must explain your plan to have a baby to the oncologist - I'm sure there's a solution.
Please excuse my bad English !
My situation was kind of similar, involving the femoral nerve and arterie. I'm greatful to be able to walk still after surgery and chemo, but I've relapsed... Is something like a localized hyperthermic chemotherapy option even possible? Similar to HIPEC, but as I say, localized?
My 14 yr old son went through 3 months of chemo, w/a month of radiation, surgery, and an addtional three months of chemo. It has been five years and CT's & MIR's continue to be clear. He was young & strong and he let them hit it with everything they had. Even though the margins were good after the surgery, we agreed with the oncologist to resume the chemo. I'm sure its different for woman, but we had his sperm frozen prior to starting treatment and about a year later his counts were back to normal. Be strong.
Alison, I was diagnosed in July 2012 with a high grade SS tumor in my left calf. It was 6x9 cm but in cross section looked like a flower’s petals, spreading out from the center. My amazing team at the University of Michigan’s Sarcoma Center recommended chemo, radiation then surgery. In my situation I had five rounds of chemo, three days in a row 2.5 weeks between. My tumor reacted to the chemo and 5 weeks of radiation that followed. It was surgically removed on February 12th with great success. I received word today from the U of M tumor board that the additional radiation they were planning for me was not needed at this time due to their satisfaction with the negative margins received from tissue taken during surgery. They have saved my leg! Yes, I will have foot drop and will wear a brace to correct this but I could not be happier. I am recovering and will have physical therapy and am moving into the monitoring phase! My tumor was also entwined in arteries and nerves. Radiation creates a thicker layer around the outside of the tumor which in my case allowed the team to save the major artery (I did request nerve/artery grafting/bypass if possible or needed). I can only speak to my story but wish you the very best. Stay strong and positive!! There are a lot of success stories out there, and that is where I chose to focus my energy on!
Hi, I recently saw a video on you tube where UCLA Sarcoma specialist Dr. Fritz Eilber says
they can now identify patients who will benefit from chemo and who it wont work on.Might be
worth checking out.
Dr. Fritz Eilber Discusses Benefit of Knowing if Chemo Will Work - YouTube
http://curetoday.com
Not sure how to do this, and I know it's late but the article is good. The site is curetoday.com it is a magazine from British Columbia. The article is "Group Therapy: Treatment Advances in Sarcoma" If you can, please post it so all can see. I'm not very computer savy.
I believe this is the article you are talking about:
http://curetoday.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/article.show/id/2/article_id/2074