Liver cancer twice - 3rd round of chemo

I had colon cancer 6 yrs ago with a resection. 2 1/2 yrs ago spread to my right liver lobe and another resection. The second chemo round left me with a cognitive disorder. Had a scan Monday that showed mets to the left liver lobe and right lung.  The surgeon says it is treatable with more surgery. I am not sure if I want to go through chemo again if this is going to continue to reoccur. Has anyone gone thorough a third round of chemo, did it help and was it worth it considering the impact on the quality of life?

My dad had have like 2 years in nexavar, pills he is taking 2 twice a day, and the gave him a therapy with syspheres. In november he will have ct to

check how he is doing, but he is still in nexavar. Í´ll let you know.

 

 

On 10/1/2009 Mirnis wrote:

My dad had have like 2 years in nexavar, pills he is taking 2 twice a day, and the gave him a therapy with syspheres. In november he will have ct to

check how he is doing, but he is still in nexavar. Í´ll let you know.

 

Thanks Mirnis, I will discuss this with my doctors. Hope your dad

is doing well - Best Wishes & hang in there.

 

 

On 9/30/2009 Roswell wrote:

I had colon cancer 6 yrs ago with a resection. 2 1/2 yrs ago spread to
my right liver lobe and another resection. The second chemo round left
me with a cognitive disorder. Had a scan Monday that showed mets to
the left liver lobe and right lung.  The surgeon says it is treatable with more surgery.
I am not sure if I want to go through chemo again if this is going to
continue to reoccur. Has anyone gone thorough a third round of chemo, did it help
and was it worth it considering the impact on the quality of life?

 

Roswell,,,,,,I am very sorry to hear about your situation because I have metastatic mets in lungs and liver which all came from a stage IV colon cancer 5.5 years ago....after the resection in colon we did chemotherapy and radiation....this beat things back for 3 years...then it showed up in my right hepatic lobe in 2007...resected section V in lobe(about 4cm tumor) with followed this up with chemotherapy....2008 tumor showed up in right adrenal gland..did surgery and followed up with chemotherapy......right now have 3 tumors in liver being treated  by Sirtex-spheres(radioembolization)...last2 months treated two tumors in right lung by RFA (radio  frequency ablation) essentially they fried 2 tumors hoping they are going away? Anyway apparently anothe tumor showed up in my left lung and I have growinf lymph node in abdomen outside any organ.....

Most things learned......1. Surgery has always been control of my cancer....i've been opened 3 times for the surgery of 2004,2007 and 2008.

I cannot have any more surgeries of this type.

2. CEA indicator has always been a major indicator in tumors growing in my body.....as soon as CEA hit 20 CT/PET indicated tumor growth.The last 3 months my CEA hit 225 and now it is back down to 89..which means I still have tumors.

At present my oncologist sees no chemo treatment to help me out ....we are probably at a pallative care situation at this point......easing pain and waiting it out.

Everyone's body is different about surgery.....my body was healthy enough to do the 3 surgeries but I have little strenght type muscle in my abdomen but lots of scar tissue.

The RFA's seem to be coming along strong.......I would find the best guy in town,state or country and go to him if possible. Remember in surgery you want the guy that has done the most with the best sucess rate ..The surgeons that did my colon resection came right out and told me to go to Sloan-Kettering because they did surgery for the location of my tumor near major blood vessels.

The best thing to do is stay positive and be thankful for the priveledge of being alive....i've learned that life is a precious gift and Ilived thru the good and bad times...it is still great.

By the way......I had no health issues that I was aware of at the time they diagnosed me with stage IV colon cancer.....my wife was having a problem and she did a colonoscopy and asked me to do one as well .....I said OK....If I had not heeded her request I would not be here today to send you an e-mail.

Any way, if I can answer any specific question please feel free to contact me....

--Message edited by CancerCompass staff. For personal protection, email address removed. Consider private reply. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html--

 

 

On 10/1/2009 rainyday1 wrote:

 

On 9/30/2009 Roswell wrote:

I had colon cancer 6 yrs ago with a resection. 2 1/2 yrs ago spread to
my right liver lobe and another resection. The second chemo round left
me with a cognitive disorder. Had a scan Monday that showed mets to
the left liver lobe and right lung.  The surgeon says it is treatable with more surgery.
I am not sure if I want to go through chemo again if this is going to
continue to reoccur. Has anyone gone thorough a third round of chemo, did it help
and was it worth it considering the impact on the quality of life?

 

Roswell,,,,,,I am very sorry to hear about your situation because I have metastatic mets in lungs and liver which all came from a stage IV colon cancer 5.5 years ago....after the resection in colon we did chemotherapy and radiation....this beat things back for 3 years...then it showed up in my right hepatic lobe in 2007...resected section V in lobe(about 4cm tumor) with followed this up with chemotherapy....2008 tumor showed up in right adrenal gland..did surgery and followed up with chemotherapy......right now have 3 tumors in liver being treated  by Sirtex-spheres(radioembolization)...last2 months treated two tumors in right lung by RFA (radio  frequency ablation) essentially they fried 2 tumors hoping they are going away? Anyway apparently anothe tumor showed up in my left lung and I have growinf lymph node in abdomen outside any organ.....

Most things learned......1. Surgery has always been control of my cancer....i've been opened 3 times for the surgery of 2004,2007 and 2008.

I cannot have any more surgeries of this type.

2. CEA indicator has always been a major indicator in tumors growing in my body.....as soon as CEA hit 20 CT/PET indicated tumor growth.The last 3 months my CEA hit 225 and now it is back down to 89..which means I still have tumors.

At present my oncologist sees no chemo treatment to help me out ....we are probably at a pallative care situation at this point......easing pain and waiting it out.

Everyone's body is different about surgery.....my body was healthy enough to do the 3 surgeries but I have little strenght type muscle in my abdomen but lots of scar tissue.

The RFA's seem to be coming along strong.......I would find the best guy in town,state or country and go to him if possible. Remember in surgery you want the guy that has done the most with the best sucess rate ..The surgeons that did my colon resection came right out and told me to go to Sloan-Kettering because they did surgery for the location of my tumor near major blood vessels.

The best thing to do is stay positive and be thankful for the priveledge of being alive....i've learned that life is a precious gift and Ilived thru the good and bad times...it is still great.

By the way......I had no health issues that I was aware of at the time they diagnosed me with stage IV colon cancer.....my wife was having a problem and she did a colonoscopy and asked me to do one as well .....I said OK....If I had not heeded her request I would not be here today to send you an e-mail.

Any way, if I can answer any specific question please feel free to contact me....

--Message edited by CancerCompass staff. For personal protection, email address removed. Consider private reply. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html--

 

 

Thanks Rainyday1, I have a great team at Emory Heathcare here in Atlanta. I spoke with them yesterday about the RFA and scheduling the lung surgeon. Sorry that you are going through this too. I may have some questions as this progresses.

 

Sorry to hear about your current situation.  My husband had colon/rectal stage III cancer 12 years ago with 2 ft of his colon taken out.  He was doing great up to three months ago when we found out that he had a large mass in his liver and a mass in his lung.  They have not found the original cancer site yet.  His colon is clear, CT scan, PET scan, biopsy of liver nothing  helps to determine what cancer he has.  Univ of chg. unknown site oncology dept. felt he might have lung or bile duct cancer and that is what they are treating him for.  He has gone through three rounds of chemo and has aCT scan next Friday.  His situation sounds alot like yours with the liver and lungs though.  They did not feel he had liver cancer from the biopsy.  How did they determine what your main cancer was??  If this chemo doesn't work which is cisplatin and gemzar, we are back at the drawing table and alot of time has wasted.  They said he could not have surgery and his only option was chemo. 

How did they determine you could have surgery??  Where your masses small???  My husbands liver mass is large around 4".  Lung is small. 

Would appreciate any insite you have since I feel like we are shooting in the dark and we are loosing time.. 

God bless and you are in our prayers  

 

  

 

 

On 10/10/2009 DarArt wrote:

Sorry to hear about your current situation.  My husband had colon/rectal stage III cancer 12 years ago with 2 ft of his colon taken out.  He was doing great up to three months ago when we found out that he had a large mass in his liver and a mass in his lung.  They have not found the original cancer site yet.  His colon is clear, CT scan, PET scan, biopsy of liver nothing  helps to determine what cancer he has.  Univ of chg. unknown site oncology dept. felt he might have lung or bile duct cancer and that is what they are treating him for.  He has gone through three rounds of chemo and has aCT scan next Friday.  His situation sounds alot like yours with the liver and lungs though.  They did not feel he had liver cancer from the biopsy.  How did they determine what your main cancer was??  If this chemo doesn't work which is cisplatin and gemzar, we are back at the drawing table and alot of time has wasted.  They said he could not have surgery and his only option was chemo. 

How did they determine you could have surgery??  Where your masses small???  My husbands liver mass is large around 4".  Lung is small. 

Would appreciate any insite you have since I feel like we are shooting in the dark and we are loosing time.. 

God bless and you are in our prayers  

 

  

 

Hi DarArt, sorry your husband is going through this. My original liver cancer was mets from the colon. Emory tested it after the removal. Had 10 tumors on the right (largest 3.5cm) liver lobe and blood supply. Avastin shrunk them and they were able to operate. This round has one tumor in the left lobe and one in the right lung. They are small as I get scans every 3 months and say they are treatable. I will be meeting with the doctors starting Monday to discuss the approach.

I would ask them why surgery is not an option and then get a second opinion from a different center. Best wishes and hope all goes well.