? just about extragonadal mediastinal germ cell tumor (yolk sac)?

My fiance has been diagnosed with germ cell tumor that started within his chest. The tumor was the size of a grapefruit that had collapsed his left lung and started to block stale his airway. He has been in the hospital 3 weeks and be in ICU for 2 weeks. They said that they did not believe he had the Klienfeld syndrome because he did not have any of the characteristics of it. I be wondering what may have caused this, if anything makes it more prone to enjoy it, what are the survival rates for this and does anyone know where a community board is for care givers to deal near germ cell tumor cancer? The doctors does not really tell us anything, they say "he is really sick" I know it has spread to his lymph nodes. They hold him on chemo already. He has been on a ventilator to help him breathe. Is at hand a survival rating? I don't know what questions to ask the doctors and they don't really want to tell you anything unless you ask them straight up. If he survives, will the chemo or the cancer affect his fertility? He doesn't have insurance any so we are in the process of trying to get him on SSI or medicaid. We were going to take married this summer, so another ? would be if we eloped would my income (around 20k annually) affect him getting SSI? He has no income now and just get out of college so didn't have a job either.
Answers:    This is a TRUE nightmare situation. I saw this once in my twenty years as a cancer specialist doctor. These do respond to chemotherapy. No one knows what causes these. A cure next to this volume of disease is difficult but not impossible. The expense will be impossible for anyone but a Kennedy in this day in the U.S. His fertility will probable be affected by the chemotherapy - depending on which drugs they use. The medical oncologist should be explaining all of this in detail. That is part of a set of the job. Much of my time as a medical oncologist was spent providing explanations for patients and their family member. This is a true battle. Fast growing malignancies like this can be fast shrinking tumors near treatment, but they can come back quickly also.
you can obtain Medicaid. No one I have ever known could afford the bills you will see for this type of care surrounded by the U.S. with no insurance coverage. Perfect example of what's wrong with our health keeping reimbursement system in the USA.

The young man I cared for contained by this situation did gain a good response to chemotherapy. He had a complete remission - meaning we could not see any more cancer on CT scan. But the cancer came back and ended his enthusiasm.

Here's a good site for you to review http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/27…


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