Just Need A Few Answers

hi, just been told my mum as bile duct cancer, and she is at the whipple stage, just waiting for the doc to give us the full in's and out's of it all. a nurse came over from a dif hospital to explain to her but coulnt tell her much as this is a rare type of cancer, but she told her that she would be having part of her liver,pancreas,bile duct and gall blader also part of her stomach!! is this normal or is this in the servere stages!!! any help or advice on how to deal with this would be great, plus do you make a full recovery or how we just playing a waiting game!!

thanks

The only hope for cure with this tumor is surgery.  Can be a Whipple, which you described but could be a liver transplant depending on size and location of the tumor.  Prognosis is poor as the tumors frequently recur and do not respond well to chemo. 

God bless.

You have pretty much described what a Whipple surgery consists of. It is a complicated surgery and best done by experienced doctors who do many of these in a year. It is also a procedure done for many Panreatic cancer patients. You may wish to check the Johns Hopkins pancreatic cancer discussion board where there are numerous people who could tell you more about the operation and their experiences. I hope your mother is able to have the surgery and it is successful.

God Bless

thanks, just been told today that she has the problem in the lower part of the bile duct, they are doing a whipple, and are taking out the bile duct, head of the pan, gall bladder and part of her stomach, sounds alot. but hopefully not much left in there to re occur

On 5/21/2007 Pawjack wrote:

hi, just been told my mum as bile duct cancer, and she is at the whipple stage, just waiting for the doc to give us the full in's and out's of it all. a nurse came over from a dif hospital to explain to her but coulnt tell her much as this is a rare type of cancer, but she told her that she would be having part of her liver,pancreas,bile duct and gall blader also part of her stomach!! is this normal or is this in the servere stages!!! any help or advice on how to deal with this would be great, plus do you make a full recovery or how we just playing a waiting game!!

thanks

Hello

I don't know how old your mother is but I am 67 years old.  On May 8th of 2006 I was told that I had biliary cancer of the liver, that is called Chollangia cellular carcinomia or in layman terms (Klatskin tumor).  I was turned down by the mayo clinic and the liver transplant dept at the University of Washington, they referred me to the Seattle Cancer Care Hospital in Seattle. I then transferred to Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle after selecting a second opinion.  I have now completed all the radiation and several different chemo reginens and as of last week after my CT scan. My tumor appears to be dormant or dead, all my tumor markers are back to normal as well as all my blood tests.  I am going to finish the last three months of chemo and if all the tests remain the same, I will be finished with all my treatment.  I am currently feeling very good and have gained back 15 of the 25 pounds that I lost.

Good luck to your mother and may god bless.

Pete

Hello,

My mum is 67 and has been diagnosed with Klatskin. Her doctor seems to repeat the same thing all over again: "at her age". which to me and my family is very, very young! He told us that chemo has no effect whatsoever. She's had a resection of the liver (bigger part than estimated) the gallbladder and  bile duct have been removed. It seems however that the tumor was bigger than anticipated and spread to the intestines and the pancreas. Her doctor did not remove part of the pancreas because he thought that doing that, would be too hard to recover from. We haven't had any hard answers to our questions, but hearing your story gives me a bit of hope. at this moment the doctor thinks she might be ok for 6 months up to a year. That isn't much, but we keep our hopes up.

Wish you all the best.

God Bless.

Pat