"DEAD" PERITONEAL METS

 hi, my dad is 62 and was recently diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. At first they thought it had spread to the liver, but apparently they now believe it is the lining "peritoneum" over the liver that contains the spot. He is halfway through his chemo, and his pet showed the met to be dead. The doctor wants to set him up to get some sort of 4d ct scan I think. Does anyone know exactly what type of this scan is, and how would it make things clearer than the pet scan? Also,  the doctor sat down with my dad and kind of explained about the surgery on the peritoneum, and my dad is leaning not to have it done. The doctors explained what a major operation it would be, and my dad just doesn't think it is a road he wants to take. I was wondering if anyone else had mets that appeared to be "dead" on a pet scan, and they decided to leave them where they were? It just seems to me like it increases your risk of a reacurrance when you leave it.Also , anybody had the surgery on the peritoneum  I would appreciate hearing how it went for you--- And just thought I would end by saying my thoughts are with the family of farrah fawcett tonight- Don't get me wrong I like micheal jackson , but it would be nice for some of the news channels to mention her. Since micheals death broke the news today that is all I have heard. Anyway-- she fought a long hard fight, and it just saddens me that it was a fight she didn't win.

My Dad has spread all over the abdomen and had debulking surgery in October 2008... it was a very long and hard operation... at best case to give us more time not a cure... he came through the operation well... but the tempory ostomy had an extremely high output... so high even with an IV he became dehydrated... they kept him in the hospital and did a reversal in four weeks... way earlier than they wanted and then the complications arose a leak, infection, etc... he did not get out of the hospital until shortly before Christmas and came home on TPN IV feeding... he had a very tough time eating as you do with this surgery and disease... we went off TPN for about a month and a half ended back up in the hospital and continue on TPN.  Dad pretty much eats nothing, but TPN sustains him... he can drink and does so along with a 900 calorie shake a day.  He does okay... not great, not terrible, just OK.  He re-started chemo in May (original plan was to re-start in JAn but with all the complications we were WAY late).. his disease has spread more since we were not able to re-start chemo when planned and he has had three chemos so far... he has one more and then a CT to decide if we stay with chemo, change drugs or give up.  Dad is 67... he was diagnosed just four months after we lost my 63 year old mom to colon cancer to which she passed just less than a year later.  Would I do the surgery all over again... I don't know... we had weird complications and if we didn't life would be better... we would have many extra years and I think a better quality of life, but tht is not how it worked out for us.  Dr. Holtzman in Pittsburgh at Hillman Cancer clinic is AWESOME and I would definitely confer with him he is young, honest and cutting edge.  I just wish things worked out better for us.  Good Luck to you!  OH and they are now doing Farrah coverage on ABC

I had what they call HIPEC surgery for peritoneal mets 2 years ago.It was tough just because I aspirated some heated chemo in my lungs and had to get a trache.I was NED for 22 months and just had a reccurance a month ago.I knew this was a possibility because of my type of cancer....signet ring cell.Am currently on new chemo and will have new scan in 3 months.Have made three and a half years so far and only feel sick when they try to fix me.They (or my doctor) won't do the surgery if he doesn't think it beneficial or the patient isn't up to it.If my new chemo doesn't work(2 one cm. mets by my bladder)I probably have that option open to me again.And  yes,I would do it.Good luck..........................Randy

 

On 7/1/2009 Maxum2199 wrote:

I had what they call HIPEC surgery for peritoneal mets 2 years ago.It was tough just because I aspirated some heated chemo in my lungs and had to get a trache.I was NED for 22 months and just had a reccurance a month ago.I knew this was a possibility because of my type of cancer....signet ring cell.Am currently on new chemo and will have new scan in 3 months.Have made three and a half years so far and only feel sick when they try to fix me.They (or my doctor) won't do the surgery if he doesn't think it beneficial or the patient isn't up to it.If my new chemo doesn't work(2 one cm. mets by my bladder)I probably have that option open to me again.And  yes,I would do it.Good luck..........................Randy

 

what is your new chemo regimen?

Hi there,

My husband has mets to his retroperitoneam.  It is not a great prognosis under any circumstance.  But he remains NED (dead mets?) at this point.  My husband is caught between a rock and a hard place with his stage IV cancer diagnosis. One cancerous lymph node could not be ressected, so he needs systemic chemo to keep the cancerous lymph node from spreading to his lungs and liver.  But the surgeon also saw peritoneal seeds like "confetti", which suggests that HIPEC would be the best option for long term survival ... er ... if it were not for the systemic chemo that he needs also.  After carefully weighing the odds and talking to several oncologists, my husband has adopted to do systemic chemo (Avastin, Oxyplatian drip every two weeks and oral Xeloda every day), and adopt a "wait and see" stance with the mets on his retroperitoneam.   If the mets on his retroperitoneal cavity do "flare up" and cause havock -- which they very well could, meaning my husband is not delusional -- he is game to try a Stage I clinical trial for HIPEC at MD Anderson in Houston.  http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00491855

PS: My cousin is a stage IV colorectal cancer survivor of 17 years.  The doctors wrote him off, but he kicked this disease and has been NED for the past 11 years this July.  My husband was just told the results of his second PET/CT Scan.  He remains NED according to this scan and according to his CEA rate too.  Though we're not delusional and know that the mets will likely cause problems down the road, we're cautiously optimistic that these mets are currently "dead" or more correctly, not metabolically active at this juncture in time.

Paula Jean  

hi, thanks for much for your response-- it is so good to hear about someone else facing the same concerns . I had a few questions if you don't mind- u mentioned resecting a lymph node- I have never actually read about than anywhere. I guess i just assumed the chemo always got the lymph nodes, that it was only the spots on actual organs that needed the surgery. Where was the lymph node? And about the cousin that was a long term survivor-- where had his spread and what type of surgeries did he have to have? Once again thanks for taking the time to reply to my post-- I have found that any extra info I can get about my dads situation is so helpful.