Melody...The reason I say surgery is necessary is because a Klatskin Tumor is located in the hepatic biliary system (at the Y). The Bile Duct Y is the junction to the common bile duct...Chemo and Radiation is not the answer. I hope your doctors testing results will lead them to surgery, give them space, but not too much, they only want make sure their dedsion is correct. As I understand it...there's not that much testing needed to determine the present of a Klatskin Tumor. It sounds like Doctor Canady is moving in the right direction...and yes I understand when you say the other doctors are reserved and sceptical...in fact that's a very polite way of saying it. My wife's doctors ( Doctor Ryo Hirose and Doctor Jerry Norton) at UCSF Medical Center accepted the challenge, their counter parts questioned them, like WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS...their next comment was, "you may lose this person on the operating table". That didn't stop them, my wife was at the time was 53 years old and in darn good health. Both doctors visited her room the night before the surgery and told her they will be very agressive with this surgery, if she needed a new blood supply they would pull a vien from her neck or leg and replace it. When sugery was done they discovered the tumor wrapped itself around the hepatic artery and they needed to remove it...she has the portal vein, thank God, but that does limit the blood flow to the liver. I apologize for rambling, I've been living this since 2003 and know more than I really want to know about the subject. Please do not hesitate to ask me anything about the subject. By the way, I don't remember if I mentioned the cancer surfaced again after 3 years in one lymph node. The fact is, it didn't come back,...it was always there but in a microscope size that was not seen by the CTscan. During surgery, my wife's doctors removed two lymph nodes...the third lymph node looked okay but as we know today there was a cancer cell so small the it wasn't detected. This cancer is a very slow growth problem with little symptoms until it's almost too late...thats the major problem. The third lymph node problem showed up as a 3.5cm mass. The doctors ordered a PET/CTscan, (Cancer can not hide from a PET scan) and found only one lymph node infected. Becuse my wife could not have additional surgery in that area (doctors know the reason) they order Oral Chemo Therapy and 3D/Conformal Radiation with a CyberKnife Radiation Boost....that saved my wifes life. Melody, again I'm sorry for rambling...there is so much information to pass on, I just get carrier away. You take care...remember what I told you before...your mom needs you...sleep, eat, and take care of yourself...don't let this burn you out...that will not do you or your mom any good...and believe me I know...it will get harder before it gets better...hang in there. Leonard, Alamo, California