Does This Sound Like Liver Cancer?

Sorry this is kind of long:

My mom has had autoimmune hepatitis for about 6 years.  She goes for blood work every 3 months and in June, the noticed some of her enzymes were elevated. They sent her for more in July and they were still elevated.  The doctor ordered a CT scan which she had in mid August.  When that came back negative, they had her do an MRI which also came back negative.  Her doctor still felt something was wrong and sent her for an ERCP, which is an endoscope that can enter the bile ducts, pancreas, and gallbladder.  They did this on September 7th. She was in a lot of pain after that procedure though. The results for that did not find anything so they were trying to decide what to do.  About a week after the ERCP, she became yellow.  She saw the doctor on Friday and he scheduled a PTC, which is a test where they inject dye into the liver and do an xray, on Monday.  The doctor said he was unable to see anything so he did an ultrasound and another CT scan.  I took her to the doctor on Tuesday Sept 18th.  The doctor said he thinks she has metastasized cancer.  There are lesions on her liver and her gallbladder is thickened which indicates cancer.  They thought it was coming from her colon.  She had an endoscopy and colonoscopy and both came back clear.  She had a liver biopsy on September 19th.  She went for the results on Friday Sept 28th and  the  doctor said it showed a malignancy but that he could not tell her what type or where it had started.  He suspects primary liver cancer, bile duct cancer or gallbladder cancer.  My mother asked for a referral to another doctor and her doctor refused. My mother had NO symptoms until she turned yellow. She is still yellow.  They tried to drain it 5 times and are going to try again on Tuesday October 2nd.  Shouldn't she have had some symptoms?

 Thanks for any advice, thoughts, etc!  

On 9/30/2007 Sheric wrote:

Sorry this is kind of long:

My mom has had autoimmune hepatitis for about 6 years.  She goes for blood work every 3 months and in June, the noticed some of her enzymes were elevated. They sent her for more in July and they were still elevated.  The doctor ordered a CT scan which she had in mid August.  When that came back negative, they had her do an MRI which also came back negative.  Her doctor still felt something was wrong and sent her for an ERCP, which is an endoscope that can enter the bile ducts, pancreas, and gallbladder.  They did this on September 7th. She was in a lot of pain after that procedure though. The results for that did not find anything so they were trying to decide what to do.  About a week after the ERCP, she became yellow.  She saw the doctor on Friday and he scheduled a PTC, which is a test where they inject dye into the liver and do an xray, on Monday.  The doctor said he was unable to see anything so he did an ultrasound and another CT scan.  I took her to the doctor on Tuesday Sept 18th.  The doctor said he thinks she has metastasized cancer.  There are lesions on her liver and her gallbladder is thickened which indicates cancer.  They thought it was coming from her colon.  She had an endoscopy and colonoscopy and both came back clear.  She had a liver biopsy on September 19th.  She went for the results on Friday Sept 28th and  the  doctor said it showed a malignancy but that he could not tell her what type or where it had started.  He suspects primary liver cancer, bile duct cancer or gallbladder cancer.  My mother asked for a referral to another doctor and her doctor refused. My mother had NO symptoms until she turned yellow. She is still yellow.  They tried to drain it 5 times and are going to try again on Tuesday October 2nd.  Shouldn't she have had some symptoms?

 Thanks for any advice, thoughts, etc!  

What speciality is the doctor that you mom is currently seeing?  She really should be seeing an oncologist.  He is specialized in the diagnostic and treatment of cancers.  If she is seeing an oncologist already then she need to get her records and go to a different one.  If she has and HMO and the doctor refuses to refer her then she needs to immediately contact the insurance company and explain the situation.  You have to be properly diagnosed before you can receive the proper treatment.  Insist that the insurance company do something.  If they don't contact a local congressman.  Don't stop until you have gotten help!   Good Luck.