Pinpoint Radiation For Inoperable Klatskins???

Does anyone have any experience with pinpoint radiation for bile duct tumors? What is its effectiveness in prolonging life? What are the side effects? My sister has a pretty severe klatskins and is not really a candidate for chemo. Thanks for your listening eyes.

 

On 4/15/2008 Bayla wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with pinpoint radiation for bile duct tumors? What is its effectiveness in prolonging life? What are the side effects? My sister has a pretty severe klatskins and is not really a candidate for chemo. Thanks for your listening eyes.

Hello Bayla,

Chemo or radiation are not options for Klatskin cancer. That is, because the cancer is not a sort of tumor IN the bile ducts, but it is a diffuse cancer in the walls of the bile duct. That is why scans hardly ever show the severety of this cancer.

My husband was diagnosed a year ago with Klatskin. Only when they tried surgery they saw how far it had allready gone. He went home with a prediction of 2-3 months. But as you can read, he is still with me. He eats well (thanks to the stents) and still works and plays squash. However, we just discovered a lymfe gland in his neck that is bigger than normal, so we know the cancer is spreading.

I know how hard this is for patient AND caregivers. I wish you all the strength you need and my thoughts are with you and your family.

Iris.

 

On 4/15/2008 Bayla wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with pinpoint radiation for bile duct tumors? What is its effectiveness in prolonging life? What are the side effects? My sister has a pretty severe klatskins and is not really a candidate for chemo. Thanks for your listening eyes.

Hello Bayla,

I read the reponse from Iris, she is correct in what she said, Chemo and Radiation treatments are not the best approach to handling this type of cancer...this cancer usually can not be controlled without surgery.

I'm assuming when you say pin-point radiation, you mean something like 3D/Conformal Radiation where the radiation beam moves in a circular pattern stopping in different spots to deliver the radiation treatment and/or another type of radiation treatment called CyberKnife, where a robotic arm moves in different positions and targets the inserted gold seed in or next to the tumor.

If you recall in my past messages I mentioned my wife had surgery for a Klatskin Tumor, it was in the extrahepatic bile duct (at the beginning of the biliary tree or the Y area). She had surgery and they believed at the time they removed 100% in the cancer, that was in 2003.  Well in 2007 a CTscan showed a mass in one more lympy node...only one lymph node was involued and it was only 3.0cm.

My wife went on a very low dose of oral chemo. But the life saying treatment was the 25 treatments of 3D/Conformal Radiation plus 5 treatments of the CyberKnife Treatments.  In her case...a pin-pointed radiation procedure saved her. But remember, if they couldn't do surgery in 2003, I would be writing this message to you in 2008.

I am very sorry to hear what your sister and you are going through, my prayers are with you both.

Leonard from Alamo, California 

 

      

 

my mom has been on chemo for about a year now...the first chemo had failed and had spread to the lining of her stomach however they put her on a combination of two different chemos at this point and it has put a break on the growth and spreading however her quality of life has decreased dramaticaly mainly because she has lost os much weight she get extremely ill from the chemo. Radiation we are told is not an option because of the affects on the liver It really depends on each indavidual doctors some agree with chemo some don't. However in my moms case it has helped put the breaks on spreading the quality of life is poor.

Hi Leonard,

Carolyn here again about my mom, who is scheduled for surgery consult with Dr. Ray, UCSF next Thursday.  We are awaiting the PET scan Monday from Kaiser. the onc. from Kaiser says that if the cancer is in her pancreau lymph node, surgery will not work. He saw a suspect lymph node (swollen on the CT scan) in that area.

 Dr Hueng of UCSF thinks Cyberknife would be a good treatment for my mother, if surgery is not an option, with chemo.  I read that you also had this for your wife.  Was it done at UCSF?

 I will probably have to fight Kaiser as they will want to do just a low dose of chemo, which does not seem to work from what I have read on this forum. I think they are considering pinpointed radiation of some sort also at the liver tumor.  She does have Klatskin's however, and the cancer has invaded the liver wall..

I wish I had never heard of cholangio.Can you give me any further advice/encouragement?

 

Thank you,

Carolyn