Thursday, November 5, 2009

Facing Cancer Now-Primary Peritoneal Cancer Prognosis

The word cancer itself instills fear in anyone who has bee associated with such a devastating disease. We have all seen the pictures of once robust, fit celebrities get slowly destroyed and all we can do is watch and learn especially if you are facing cancer now.
Primary peritoneal cancer is a catch all phrase for stomach lining cancer. What's so scary about the particular type is that the symptoms can be any of a number of things. Because of this, it is usually not detected until it has advanced such as stage 3 or stage for where it has progressed to other parts of the body.
There are other types of cancers that used to get lumped into this group until doctors figured out that some did not respond to the standard protocol of surgery, radiation or chemo. Tumors like GIST-Gastro intestinal stromal tumors-usually led to funeral arrangements fairly quickly.
But thanks to a doctor in Finland who treated an extremely sick GIST patient with a Leukemia drug, GIST is now manageable as a cancer. The drug Gleevec, has now become the standard treatment for GIST.