my dads partner has been told she has liver cancer. she is having chemo...will it shrink it and give her more time with my dad?
2006-12-06 07:27:02 · 8 answers · asked by samantha r 1 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ Cancer
It would be foolish for anyone to suggest that liver cancer is anything but a very serious and often fatal condition. However, it is not always a death sentence and there are many procedures and aggressive regimes that are available to the patient. Much will depend on the type of cancer (there is not just one type of liver cancer), whether it is a primary or secondary cancer, the position of the tumour, the size of the tumour, the number of tumours, the condition of the patient's liver and general health.
It is more unusual for the cancer to be primary, usually it is secondary and has spread to the liver fron another organ. This can be very difficult to deal with as the primary source has to be identified and treated before the liver.
Chemo may very well be successful in reducing the tumour. However it is necessary to learn what the oncologist hopes to achieve by using the chemo. It is sometimes possible to remove the tumour surgically (liver resection) and it may be that it is too large to do so immediately, so the hope is that the chemo will allow later surgery. It may be that the tumour cannot be operated on and so the chemo is being used to prolong and enhance the patient's life. If there are a number of tumours it may not be possible to operate.
If the patient's liver is badly diseased, normally through cirrhosis or hepatitis B or C, liver resection will not be an option and the only real hope will be a transplant. Again this is a situation where chemo will be used to try to stabilise or reduce the tumour.
It is vital for your dad to learn as much as possible about his partner's condition and prognosis since it is only through having this information that a realistic appraisal of her future can be made. Even if the tumour is removed it often recurs. But the patient is regularly monitored and hopefully, it is picked up very quickly.
Don't give up hope. There are many people out there who have exceeded expectations. Everyones situation is different.
2006-12-06 10:09:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have a good friend that has tumors on her liver. She was given 3 months to live but that was 5 yrs ago. She takes chemo every week and looking at her you would never know she had cancer. I know that prayer and her faith in God is whats kept her going.
2006-12-06 15:31:45 · answer #2 · answered by nuthen2it 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's difficult to fully assess, but i'm presuming that she has liver cancer as spread from another organ, i would presume to be the bowel. (forgive me if it is the stomach or breast) If this is the case, the current drug here in the UK is oxaliplatin, sometimes used on it's own, sometimes in conjunction with 5Fu. As with all chemotherapeutic agents, whether you see a response is dependant upon the individual, but response rates are much improved with this drug, and from my experience, it has shown considerable slowdown in many cases, shrinkage in others, and in half a dozen liver resections this year, complete regression of the tumour.
This is not to say it is the magic wand, but it is quite successful. Without seeing her history, and importantly scans, it may be that she has a huge tumour load in her liver, or that she has a couple of mets they wish to shrink to peel off the livers blood system.
As a note, i presume it would not be primary liver cancer, as chemotherapy is of little effect, and rarely given due to the fact that many livers are cirrhotic prior to the cancer. Treatment for these is either transplant, resection, RFA, alcohol injection or chemoembolisation.
2006-12-06 17:59:09 · answer #3 · answered by grizzler69 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Liver cancer is the most aggressive and hardest to treat, but it IS treatable. Your best bet would be to contact someone at the hospital and ask if they have a counsellor you could talk to about all your fears. When my Dad went through cancer it was pretty much the only thing I could think about, but they kept me sane.
2006-12-06 15:31:30 · answer #4 · answered by Lily 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is nothing good about liver cancer.
2006-12-06 15:34:40 · answer #5 · answered by ratchet 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is what the chemotherapy is for. I hope it works; just have a positive attitude and be thoughtful. Support her and enourage her.
No one can predict whether chemotherapy will succeed or fail. Just have faith. Have to wait and see.
2006-12-06 15:31:15 · answer #6 · answered by makeitright 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Keep positive and get her drinking beetroot juice as this is a tonic for the liver... good luck....
2006-12-06 15:41:09 · answer #7 · answered by Susie Drew 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
http://www.cancer.gov/cancer_information/cancer_type/liver
Hope this link might be of help
2006-12-06 15:31:09 · answer #8 · answered by richard_beckham2001 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋