Kathryn G’s story

I was diagnosed in May 2014, Stage 3, following a low anterior resection and 8 cycles of Folfox. I was given the all-clear.

After a routine PET scan in June 2015, I was given the news that the disease had metastasised to my liver and was inoperable. Soon after I started 6 cycles of Cetuximab and Irinotecan and in November received a call from a surgeon in Melbourne who wanted to see me.

We met in December, and my surgeon wanted to have a go at removing the 6 or 7 tumours throughout my liver which might be done over two surgeries. In January 2016 I received the liver resection and my surgeon reported he had removed the tumours and believed it to be successful. Six weeks later I restarted the infusions for 6 more cycles. I stayed on Cetuximab until March 2018. Having regular blood tests, CT scans and PET scans.

Everything was good until a recurrence in September 2019 in both lungs. A PET scan prior to the first lung resection in October 2019 revealed a tumour in my pancreas also. The lung surgeon spoke with my surgeon and my oncologist. My surgeon felt it was important to go ahead with the procedure, mostly for a biopsy, as colorectal cancer doesn’t often metastasise to the pancreas.

The biopsy revealed it was colorectal cancer. After much discussion and insistence by me, the oncologist and my surgeon agreed to an extended, radical, distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy in November 2019. Then in February 2020 the left lung resection went ahead.

All was again good for 16 months, this time a routine PET scan showed an enlarged portal node. Four weeks of radiation began mid-July but this had no impact on the node and my surgeon operated again in December 2021 to remove it. Success again.

More monitoring and following fluctuating tumour makers over the next couple of years, highest being 19.7, a PET scan showed activity in the portal cavity again. So, in May 2024 I restarted Cetuximab.

I am still having fortnightly infusions, and the oncologist plans to continue this regime until May 2026. PET scans and CT scans have been clear for many months, and the CEA moves between 4.7 and 5.3.

Until July 2017 I worked between 30 hrs and 45 hrs as a manager in a fast-food restaurant and in July 2017 my husband and I bought a Newsagency and TattsLotto store. We worked long hours together until his unexpected passing from a heart attack in January 2024. I learnt how to delivery newspapers the following day and have worked 60 hours a week since, with the support of a couple of casual staff.

I have been fortunate that my body and mind have better than tolerated the treatments I have received and am forever grateful that my surgeon ‘had a go’ back in 2016, and that my body recovered so fast from the surgery. If my surgeon hasn’t saved my life three times, he has definitely extended it.

My one piece of advice:

Keep busy, stay active, listen to your body, make sure you believe in your medical team.