On 3/4/2008
Ping-Pong Ball wrote:
Sorry to high-jack your thread.
Quick question, I'm 33 and had a total pancreatectomy last October due to Islet Cell Carcinoma taking up residency in my entire pancreas.
Long story short, I had a CT scan done last week. I figured they'd find nothing, since I was gutted like a fish. Anyway the CT showed 3 new lesions (since November, nothing was there in the past) in my liver and a possibly enlarged lymph node in the liver. I'm getting an MRI tomorrow to see if I just had a bad CT or if their is something to be concerned about.
The doctors said when I had my surgery that I would have nothing to worry about in the future because they removed all the islet cancer when they took out my pancreas. My question, how does stuff pop-up then in my liver? Is this common? I know there are a lot of things to get sorted out before I start to worry. I just saw this thread & it peaked my interest.
Thanks!
Sorry to hear about the pop-ups, especially after the gutting.
I was diagnosed with islet cell in October of 06. I was first told that I should just wait and see (at the time I was diagnosed, I had a small 2cm tumor on my pancreas and two 3cm tumors in the liver). However, 6 months later, the pancreatic tumor had grown to 4cm and not only had the two liver tumors grown, but there were 3 new ones and two infected lymph nodes! (Slow-growing my @#$.) I started chemotherapy in July of 07 and have seen some improvement. However, even while my primary tumor and mets were shrinking, the cancer spread to my ovaries and started growing. FAST. I had to have my ovaries removed 6 weeks after they first found it had spread and in that time the largest tumor went from 3.5cm to 6cm.
So I guess what I'm saying is yes, this stuff can just pop up. Whether or not this is considered a "slow-growing" cancer, you HAVE to treat it aggressively, because you, like me, may be the exception to the rule. Don't want to bum you out, but it's the truth.