Hello Everyone,
My mother is a Stage IV Colon Cancer patient with mets to the liver and the lungs. She basically has two tumors both just under 2 cm on the liver on opposite ends. She has smaller tumors on her lungs. I believe 4 on the left lung and 1 on the right. Since her two last cat scans showed the tumors on the lungs to be stable and the two tumors on the liver growing very slightly, we are considering RFA for the two tumors on the liver. We had a consultation today and although the radiologist is willing to pursue this procedure despite the other activity on the lungs,he stressed that he is not sure if the procedure will elongate her life. He told us there are risks involved, such as the possibility of infection, might end up deflating the lung by the tumor in the process and have to re-inflate it, etc.. The one tumor is close to the heart which makes it a little tricky also. I realize it is his job to tell us all the risks but the fact that he was willing to pursue this makes me feel that there must be some promise in it. I have read a little on line about the procedure and it sounds like a good weapon against these stubborn tumors especially since you can remain on your chemotherapy . If we can do something in addition to the chemo I feel that would be promising. My mother has been on chemo since Jan 07 and she has gone from Oxaliplatin to Irinotecan and I understand Erbitux will be next. I just am concerned that if we do nothing but chemo we will eventually run out of chemo options. If anyone has had this procedure and can share some info with me I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks very much,
Harley4