Is a 2.5 cm tumor considered big?

Question

Is a 2.5 cm tumor considered big? How fast does cancer spread?

The tumor is located in the liver. Is this serious? What if he doesn’t want to do a biopsy to determine if it's cancerous? What do you do then? I don't want to get him mad. But he just won't listen because he's too scared and too stubborn.

Answer 1

LIVER CANCER - of 2.5 cm is quite big. The growth or spreading of cancer depends on the Grade of the disease. Grade denotes the speed at which the cancerous cells multiply and grow. Also much depends on the stage of the disease. Something on this can be told only on getting full information from you.

Your father certainly need to go in for needle biopsy without which correct treatment may not be possible. Please read about needle biopsy aspiration -

Tissue can be sampled with a very thin needle. This technique is called fine needle aspiration. When a larger needle is used to obtain a core of tissue, the technique is called a biopsy. Generally, radiologists, using ultrasound or CT scans to guide the placement of the needle, perform the biopsies or fine needle aspirations. The most common risk of the aspiration or biopsy is bleeding, especially because liver cancer is a tumor that is very vascular (contains many blood vessels). Rarely, new foci (small areas) of tumor can be seeded (planted) from the tumor by the needle into the liver along the needle track.

The aspiration procedure is safer than a biopsy with less risk for bleeding. However, interpretation of the specimen obtained by aspiration is more difficult because often only a cluster of cells is available for evaluation. Thus, a fine needle aspiration requires a highly skilled pathologist. Moreover, a core of tissue obtained with a biopsy needle is more ideal for a definitive diagnosis because the architecture of the tissue is preserved. The point is that sometimes a precise diagnosis can be important clinically. For example, some studies have shown that the degree of differentiation of the tumor may predict the patient's outcome (prognosis). That is to say, the more differentiated (resembling normal liver cells) the tumor is, the better the prognosis.

Please convince him some how and have this done. Even for biopsy he is not willing, I do not know how he will tolorate the other treatments like Surgery, Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy. All these treatment are really difficult one. Please take him somehow to an surgical oncologist and he will convince him and do the needful. -

Answer 2

This message is truthful, i hope it doesnt upset you. 2.5cm in my opinion is small at this stage. Liver cancer is generally a secondary cancer rarely is it where it started from. My Mum was diagnosed with kidney cancer in May 2007 (she past away two weeks ago), it spread to her liver and lung. My Mums cancer was extremely aggressive. When she was first diagnosed her liver tumor was 2.5 cm, in a month it had double in size, in two months it was 12cm in diameter and growing. Mum had three biopsys, first in the kidney, then the liver and then another in the kidney, They found it difficult to locate the primary cancer. When they do a biopsy, they take a small section of tissue from the tumor and look at the shape of the cells to determine what type of cancer it is. (and there are lots of different ones) They could for example do a liver biopsy and that could show that the cancer is actually coming from the bowel but has spread thru the blood stream or lymph nodes to the liver. hope that makes sense. I believe if liver cancer can not be surgically removed is non curable and fairly aggressive but my advice to you is to speak to people in oncology unit. Liver cancer is also known to make you feel very nausea and sick most of the time. My thoughts are with you i wish you all the best. Contact me if you need to, i know what your going thru!!

Answer 3

I'm sure it would really depend on where the tumor is located. How fast it spreads depends on the type of cancer. Some are slower than others. More info is needed.

Answer 4

sure thing dawg!