HCC

My husband has been diagnosed with HCC, it is in both lobes of the liver and in the vessels from the stomach to the liver and from the liver to the spleen, He has cirhossis. He has not had a drink in 6 years and was doing fine then all of a sudden they found the cancer while treating him for a bleeding ulcer. He has been to Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto and was told he cannot have a liver transplant, chemo or radiation. He is now going to see an oncologist on March 10th to see about Sonafib. I am so scared and do not know what to expect.Has anyone else had this, what stage would he be considered at this point. As far as I know it is not in any other organs at this time.  They are also going to do a biopsy, I don't know why now. He has had CT Scans and UltraSounds.  He is very jaundice, has purple brusing on parts of his body. He has little appitite and is very tired all the time. He has lost a lot of weight and muscle and is really just skin and bones now.  

 

On 2/28/2009 lttldevl wrote:

My husband has been diagnosed with HCC, it is in both lobes of the liver and in the vessels from the stomach to the liver and from the liver to the spleen, He has cirhossis. He has not had a drink in 6 years and was doing fine then all of a sudden they found the cancer while treating him for a bleeding ulcer. He has been to Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto and was told he cannot have a liver transplant, chemo or radiation. He is now going to see an oncologist on March 10th to see about Sonafib. I am so scared and do not know what to expect.Has anyone else had this, what stage would he be considered at this point. As far as I know it is not in any other organs at this time.  They are also going to do a biopsy, I don't know why now. He has had CT Scans and UltraSounds.  He is very jaundice, has purple brusing on parts of his body. He has little appitite and is very tired all the time. He has lost a lot of weight and muscle and is really just skin and bones now.  

 I am so very sorry to hear about your husband.  I am a 2 year survivor of HCC.  I am doing well, underwent a liver resection 2 years ago to remove the tumor.  I was lucky.  You really do need to make sure you have another opinion and ask any question at all of the medical team.  No question is too stupid.  Find out from the docs what stage and the prognosis of your husband so you will know what the two of you are dealing with.  He sounds as if he is relatively far along with the jaundice and weight loss.  He in all likelihood is very tired.  If I were you, I would leave no stone unturned.  There are several treatments out there but they are right, he probably would not be a candidate for transplant as their requirements are very strict.  I hope this helps you.  Good luck.  iris

 

On 3/2/2009 Irisv wrote:

 

On 2/28/2009 lttldevl wrote:

My husband has been diagnosed with HCC, it is in both lobes of the liver and in the vessels from the stomach to the liver and from the liver to the spleen, He has cirhossis. He has not had a drink in 6 years and was doing fine then all of a sudden they found the cancer while treating him for a bleeding ulcer. He has been to Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto and was told he cannot have a liver transplant, chemo or radiation. He is now going to see an oncologist on March 10th to see about Sonafib. I am so scared and do not know what to expect.Has anyone else had this, what stage would he be considered at this point. As far as I know it is not in any other organs at this time.  They are also going to do a biopsy, I don't know why now. He has had CT Scans and UltraSounds.  He is very jaundice, has purple brusing on parts of his body. He has little appitite and is very tired all the time. He has lost a lot of weight and muscle and is really just skin and bones now.  

 I am so very sorry to hear about your husband.  I am a 2 year survivor of HCC.  I am doing well, underwent a liver resection 2 years ago to remove the tumor.  I was lucky.  You really do need to make sure you have another opinion and ask any question at all of the medical team.  No question is too stupid.  Find out from the docs what stage and the prognosis of your husband so you will know what the two of you are dealing with.  He sounds as if he is relatively far along with the jaundice and weight loss.  He in all likelihood is very tired.  If I were you, I would leave no stone unturned.  There are several treatments out there but they are right, he probably would not be a candidate for transplant as their requirements are very strict.  I hope this helps you.  Good luck.  iris

 

Thank you Iris I think we have every opinion. We are off to see the oncologist on Tuesday. i think whatever he has to say will be the final thing as far as Dr.'s go. We saw his liver specialist last week and he basically told us not much left to do. He would not give us a time line but did say he should get his affairs in order. I must say he was very sad and felt helpless. He said in cases of cirhossis they say blood work and ultra sounds should be done every 6 months. In my husband's case that was done and nothing showed up our Doctor felt helpless he was so sorry he could not have done more and wished there would have been something more they could have done to prevent this. I am glad you were able to be helped and I wish you the best of luck in the future. God Bless you and take care of you.