Elevated Liver Enzymes

my husband has stage 3 melanoma.  we have had 2 surgeries, one was to remove the lymphnodes in his neck....5 high dose radiation treatments...and the first month's iv interferon treatments.  he started shots for the remaining 11 months of required treatment on october 16.  january 23 blood work showed his liver enzymes are very elevated and the oncologist took him off the interferon and has been checking his liver functions every week.  they were dropping every week until yesterday and they went right back up very high even though he is off the interferon.  the oncologist has taken him off his cholesterol meds and his arthritis meds now to see if that helps................can anyone tell me if this is normal?.............  do you think it is all medication related??   ...........is this what happens if the melanoma spreads to the liver???         help!!

What are his liver enzyme numbers?  Your liver enzymes can be high and they will go back down. 

Your liver regenerates itself, but you may want to slow down treatment if they are too high before you do too much damage that the liver can't regenerate. 

I have half of my liver removed as part of my treatment for Stage IV colon cancer.  It has grown back to 95%.

 

On 2/20/2007 Cptmac wrote:

What are his liver enzyme numbers?  Your liver enzymes can be high and they will go back down. 

Your liver regenerates itself, but you may want to slow down treatment if they are too high before you do too much damage that the liver can't regenerate. 

I have half of my liver removed as part of my treatment for Stage IV colon cancer.  It has grown back to 95%.

thank you so much for responding to me.....his levels last week  were down to 50 on aspartate aminotrans and 73 alanine aminotrans ------yesterday he was at 111 and 165 respectively--------------they were that high a few weeks ago also.......thought when he came off the interferon they would stay down.........what do you think???

 

I can speak to you as a patient, what happened to me and the drugs I used are different from your situation.

My enzymes were almost up to 1,000 after my liver was resected and was told they needed to get up to almost 2,000 before my liver would fail. 

They went down again to the low 200's before I started chemo and then went up to the 700's.  I was done with chemo in June of '05 and they have slowly gone down again. 

One thing that helped me is, I started eating organic food.  That dropped my liver enzymes about 100 points. 

So, I wouldn't worry unless the Dr.'s get worried.  The liver is a great organ and has the ability to heal itself.

I hope this helped. 

 

thank you for the response.....i had no idea the numbers could go so high..........with that in mind, i suppose my main concern right now needs to be getting him back on track with the interferon...he has been off completely for 4 weeks now because of the liver numbers ........thanks again

 

On 2/20/2007 Munchkin wrote:

my husband has stage 3 melanoma.  we have had 2 surgeries, one was to remove the lymphnodes in his neck....5 high dose radiation treatments...and the first month's iv interferon treatments.  he started shots for the remaining 11 months of required treatment on october 16.  january 23 blood work showed his liver enzymes are very elevated and the oncologist took him off the interferon and has been checking his liver functions every week.  they were dropping every week until yesterday and they went right back up very high even though he is off the interferon.  the oncologist has taken him off his cholesterol meds and his arthritis meds now to see if that helps................can anyone tell me if this is normal?.............  do you think it is all medication related??   ...........is this what happens if the melanoma spreads to the liver???         help!!

This is part of the issue with Interferon as with all cancer drugs, they will bring down Liver levels and blood levels.

My partner was on the same interferon treatment, and had a problem with elevated liver enzymes.  Had to stop treatment several times.  Some people have had success with drinking large amounts of fluid which helps avoid the extreme fatigue and sometimes the high liver enzymes interferon can cause. The doctors recommended a minimum of 2 litres of fluid per day, and avoiding coffee, tea and caffeinated sodas because they are diuretic.  My partner simply would not drink that much.  Interferon is a tough treatment to undergo.  Good luch

Hi,

I found your message while I am doing the research for my sister. She have HBV and TB. When she was treat for TB, it increased her liver enzymes up to 800. Doctors have to stop her treatment for TB until the liver return normal.  . The doctor gave her Nissel ( made in Korea) but it does not work well. My sister now in semi coma .

Since my sister is in Vietnam, I wonder if there are some more medicine for lowering level enzymes that are not available in Vietnam,  I appreciate if you could provide me some information of the drugs that you took , so I can ask the doctor overthere to see if we can use for my sister.

I appreciate your help.

TDLGA