Third battle round...advice- thoughts

Joe was diagnosed in Oct. 09. Whipple June 2010. Feb. had obstruction and ended up with ilieostomy. March had kidney stone removed. March scan showed ascites and a nodule between spleen and bowel. Today's scan showed an increase in ascites. Cannot see the suspicious spot clearly, but it is suspected to be a tumor. The plan is to drain the ascites tomorrow and test it for cancer cells. If there are cancer cells, oncologist wants to use irlotnib (sp?) as treatment. My questions to all of you: Does ascites have to be the beginning of the end? Is there still a chance? For those of you who had irtlotnib as treatment, how successful was it and what were side effects?

 Hi Rebecca,

         I am so sorry about your loved one and this awful cancer. To answer your question ascities is never a good sign, even if they test the fluid for cells and there are none it doesn't mean the cancer has not spread. Most cause for ascities is bc cancer has spread to the lining of the abdomen and it irritates it causing the fluid build up. The important thing to remember is is can be dangerous, it can build up to the point where it can affect his heart and it must be continually aspirated. It also can affect his appetite causing a false sense of fullness, my Dad never had irtotnib, I don't know what that is, hoping it will help.

Hi,

My husband had ascites in his pelvic region for months that went away.

Oh my GOSH!  Really? What was the ascites caused from?

How did it go away? Chemo? Draining?

Hi,

Never said what caused it. They thought it was from surgery. Scared me, but they never worried about it. It did just reabsorb into his body. It showed up on his scans, but it was in the pelvic area I think they called Rezius region? have to find the scan results. I don't want to cause false hopes but not all ascites means bad things.

Pat 

It's not always the end. My Mom had ascites for almost a year as a result of her surgery and radiation. Her ascites was the best it had been in the weeks before she passed, go figure. I'm not sure if you're husband had radation but that can also cause the body to not asborb the fluid properly. Also low albuim levels can cause ascites as well.

Yes, he has had a lot of radiation. That would be wonderful if that is what the ascires is from....

Thank you...that is a lot of really good advice and info.

Rebecca, My husband's case is almost the same: jun 2011 Whipple, july to nov chemo with radiation 25 times. Late oct developed swelling by liver. Doc considered it not the ascites class but that cancer irritates his liver linging and produces fluid/ mucous. He had to drain for more than 4 times since last year, still got a drain line connecting to his right side for 3 weeks now. He also had to switch chemo, and now just started folfiri (with irinotecan) for a week. We pray that it will work for him. So sorry about your dad. We hope it also will help him. My husband's cancer type is ampullary stage 4. Be very gentle in doing anything. And be careful not to get infection. Lin

Hi Rebecca

Sorry to hear about Joes problems. I found a good article:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/pancreatic/

I talks about using Gemzar and Tarceva (erlotinib) concurrently and gettting a drain put in.

I have been on Tarceva and it is a very tough pill to take, but i always recommend hitting it as hard as you can. Thats what i have been successful doing.

There is a EGFR Mutation test they usually run to see if Tarceva will work. You might ask about that.

http://liveforeverwithcancer.com/

My Best

John

Thank you so much, John!