Liver mets - ever chance of a surgery??

My father had been diagnosed with PC in April 07. He is of 68 yrs. He has a tumor in the tail of the pancreas & had mets to the liver. The docs had suggested for chemo (Gemta + FU + Oxi.....). After 3 months of chemo, a CAT scan showed that the tumor has shrunk considerably & the mets to the liver is no more visible. While one of the oncologists had referred for operation, the other said that in case of mets to liver an operation will be a futile effort as it is bound to come back in the liver. Has anybody faced such a situation? Plz do let me know. Am in a dilemma regarding what to do!

Take care

 Neel

I would agree that stage 4 PC is not really cureable.  Even if the Whipple is done early before mets there is a high recurrance rate.  So , yes, there is a high probability that it will recurr after the surgery.  The surgery could buy some time but thats a decision for him to make.  It is not an easy surgery and takes a while to recover from.  Is he otherwise healthy?

Hi everyone.....

 I am sorry for the ignorance, but I keep seeing the phrase 'mets to the liver'....what exactly is that?  I've had a whipple a few years back, and I don't know what that means.

Thanks

Never feel afraid to ask a question.

Thanks.....lol.  They thought I had 'stuff' on my liver.......its not YOU KNOW WHAT!  Thank God!.

Thanks for the education

On 8/23/2007 Oncrx wrote:

I would agree that stage 4 PC is not really cureable.  Even if the Whipple is done early before mets there is a high recurrance rate.  So , yes, there is a high probability that it will recurr after the surgery.  The surgery could buy some time but thats a decision for him to make.  It is not an easy surgery and takes a while to recover from.  Is he otherwise healthy?

My father has been doing absolutely fine since he has started with Chemotherapy from May 07. In the last 2 months he has also gained weight. The only problem he faces is that of lowering of WBC count after each Chemo session for which he takes injections. So overall, he is doing pretty good. Also the size of his tumor has been reduced to almost half since April 07.

 Is there anybody who went through such a situation? If so what has been the course of action? I'm dying to know about it. Plz do let me know.

On 8/23/2007 neelblues wrote:

My father had been diagnosed with PC in April 07. He is of 68 yrs. He has a tumor in the tail of the pancreas & had mets to the liver. The docs had suggested for chemo (Gemta + FU + Oxi.....). After 3 months of chemo, a CAT scan showed that the tumor has shrunk considerably & the mets to the liver is no more visible. While one of the oncologists had referred for operation, the other said that in case of mets to liver an operation will be a futile effort as it is bound to come back in the liver. Has anybody faced such a situation? Plz do let me know. Am in a dilemma regarding what to do!

Take care

 Neel

 

That's a tough one.  It all depends on what type of cancer it is.  The liver is a dumping place from the pancreas so not surprising it mets there.  If the primary tumor is still there then the doctor may be right about it coming back to the liver, especialliy if it goes untreated.  But there are some drugs that block the receptors on the cancer cells so they won't grow.  Again it depends of the type of cancer.

If it was me I would ask one of the following docs - Dr. T O'Dorisio (U of Iowa) and Dr's E Woltering and L. Anthony (Louisiana State U).   They are the best of the best for Neuroendocrine tumors and they are doing amazing things.  There is also a guy in Fl. Dr. L Kvols (Tampa - H. Lee Moffitt CC) he is good too.

Hi

My Dad, age 72 had a distal pancreotomy for a tumour in the tail of his pancreas in Nov 2006. It was a 10 hour surgery (the tumour was larger than they expected, and they also removed his spleen, left adrenal gland and  part of his stomach which added time to his operation). He was in hospital for just over 3 weeks. He was recovering very well in hospital but seemed to go downhill when he first came home just before Christmas. By the New year he had picked up again and his 6wk check up after the op he walked into the Hospital with me and Mum trotting behind him trying to keep up.

Dad's surgery was not as sucessful as we hoped as the margins were not clear and 1 out of 6 lymph nodes were involved and the cancer has returned and is now very aggresive. If your surgeon can get clear margins, you are half way there.

On this message board, a while ago, someone replied to a question of mine and said that her husband had mets to the liver and was treated with theraspheres and when scanned 3 months later there was no tumour, she said the procedure was easy.

Good luck with your choices. Will be thinking of you

Sue