Liver mets - options

Hello all - my husband Michael got the results of the MRI of the liver and we were devastated.  There are new lesions growing in the liver.  The only options that Sloan is offering is Xeloda, Cetuximab or a study using an antibody.  Initially his oncologist had offered docetaxel (before the scans) and she said that he would have minimal side effects by going on a maintenance chemo of docetaxel - either once every three weeks or once a week for three weeks per month - for the duration of his life.  She's no longer considering that a viable option, as the new lesions returned so quickly, after the three rounds of the dreadful chemo cocktail.  We had considered a practitioner of alternative medicine, but have since changed our minds, because someone advised me that he had some "shady" business practices.  The tumors are dispersed, and small.  We're seeing an interventional radiologist at Mt. Sinai to find out if he's eligible for Y90 treatment - I think that this is the insertion of radioactive pellets into the liver.  Has anyone tried this?  We've also sent his scans to a doctor at Johns Hopkins to see if he's a candidate for RFA.  His onc at Sloan said that the tumors are too small to consider RFA at this time. 

Any suggestions - please send them my way.

God bless you and thank you.

Hi,

I've had the Y90 spheres and I wish I could tell you that it's not bad but it is.  I wasn't real sick but I was miserable enough that I was a total jerk to my family and anyone else that got close.  The Y90 did help, but it does take a long time for them to see results.  It is a very expensive treatment  I think my insurance company paid close to $140,000 for that one treatment.  I've also had embolizations with adriamycin several times and although I don't feel great with those it was nothing like Y90.  If you have other questions for me just post back to this thread and I'll get an e-mail and respond. 

Good luck and stay atrong,

Bob

On 9/16/2009 hepatokid wrote:

Hi,

I've had the Y90 spheres and I wish I could tell you that it's not bad but it is.  I wasn't real sick but I was miserable enough that I was a total jerk to my family and anyone else that got close.  The Y90 did help, but it does take a long time for them to see results.  It is a very expensive treatment  I think my insurance company paid close to $140,000 for that one treatment.  I've also had embolizations with adriamycin several times and although I don't feel great with those it was nothing like Y90.  If you have other questions for me just post back to this thread and I'll get an e-mail and respond. 

Good luck and stay atrong,

Bob

Bob - thanks so much for responding.  Can you tell me more about your experience with Y90?  Were you in the hospital for the treatments and for how long?  I don't believe that my husband is a candidate for the embolizations, as I think the protocol calls for less than 4 tumors.  Can you tell me about your cancer?  I don't mean to break any boundaries, and if you don't feel comfortable talking to a complete stranger about this, I totally get it.  More importantly, I hope that you are well today.

Many, many thanks,

Georgette

Hi Georgette,

I don't mind talking about this at all.  I feel good most of the time and I think I have a great attitude (only because of God's help).  I wish I could pass that on to everyone, but let's face it, this is a rough disease to cope with.  Where do you live?  I'm in Florida and even though I live within 10 miles of a national cancer research center I drive 125 miles to the University of Florida in Gainesville.  The docs and staff are great there. 

I was diagnosed over 2 years ago and have taken several trial drugs had 14 "embos" and the good ol' Y90.  When I got the Y90 I was in the hospital for maybe 2 or 3 days, 4 at the most.  Due to the amount of chemo I've had and the number of times I've been put under my memory isn't what it was.  My arteries couldn't take the embos anymore so I'm back on a trial drug that my body is tolerating very well.  Nexavar really messed with the skin on my hands and feet to the point that it was intolerable.  That was how it affected me, I was told I was in the top 2% of people having bad reactions to it.  I've taken two other "sister drugs" sutent and tarceva that barely bothered me at all.  Tarceva is the new trial for me and although it's early in the game I truly believe I'm going to tolerate it well.

Listen, don't ever worry about asking questions.  We're all looking for answers and we're all having a rough time dealing with this.  We need to help each other whenever we can and I'm happy to do that.  If you don't want to post questions on the site remember you can send it private as well.

Take care,

Bob