New here

[Phallguy]

Hello. I'm new here because of my wife's situation. Last Friday she went to er thinking she needed an appendectomy. CT scan proved that wrong and instead showed colon tumor and 3 liver lesions. I should mention that wife is 43 years old and in good health.

We spoke to GI surgeon on Monday and based on ER report and later confirmed through CT scan the mass and the lesions. Today she had a colonoscopy and the Dr. Stated he believed it to be cancerous and based on the liver lesions that my wife is in stage 4. I'm holding out hope that mass is benign, however it's the liver lesions and what they mean that have me scared out of my mind. My question I suppose is are there cases of liver lesions not being associated with the colon cancer? I'm desperately searching for hope, but not false hope.

Thanks in advance.

[some]

There are cases of liver lesions being benign. Hemangiomas, for example. They don't know anything for certain before the pathology comes back. If it is cancerous, the liver lesions become suspect to be mets. The important thing is not to panic. I know as a spouse that this turned my world upside down about 18 months ago. The thing is, they can do surgery and can treat the liver. You will want to seek out an NCI hospital and liver surgeon consult. The lier is an amazing organ that can regenerate. Don't be surprised if they start with chemo first, though if your wife is nearly blocked, they may do the colectomy first. Ask a lot of questions and be sure to tell them you want to go for curative intent with surgery, not just chemo indefinitely. This board is a treasure of information and some very knowledgeable people will be chiming in soon. I'm so sorry you have to be here and I hope it isn't anything, but if it is, you two will do what you have to. The first days are a blur, but once you focus onwhat you have to do, it kinda distracts you.

Best to you.

Serena

[Phallguy]

Thank you so much!

I should have mentioned that after her colonoscopy the dr stated that the rest of her colon was in great shape. Additionally, she will be having the mass removed tomorrow. This all happened so fast, that I thought surgery would need to be done either way in order to get mass removed. He stated that after surgery, chemo would be the route used.

[pmterra]

My husband's tumor was at the beginning of the large intestine right at the cecum which is where the appendix is. His CAT scan (before surgery) also noted lesions on his liver. The lesions did turn out to be hemangioma's which are benign lesions and are very common. His stage was 3C which was due to the amount of lymph nodes that tested positive when they did surgery. We are 5+ years out from surgery and chemo and there is no evidence of disease (NED). I just wanted to give you some hope and let you know that there is a chance that the liver lesions are benign. You are both in the beginning stages of a roller coaster ride but there is light at the end. I wish you the best. You can PM me anytime. It seems at times that this roller coaster is harder for the caregiver so if I can help in any way, I am happy to. There are many stage 4 survivors here too so while it is really scary right now, there is lots of hope! You've come to a good place.
~Paula

[DBF]

I was diagnosed at 42 with what the doctors first thought to be cancer in my colon only. I, too, ws a healthy person up until then. My CT scan showed a lesion on my liver that the radiologists were sure was a hemangioma. I turned out it wasn't- it was a met. I had my colon resection and then my liver resection before I had chemo. I was resectable when the liver tumor was confirmed (there was only one tumor), and my oncologist at MSKCC felt sugery should precede chemo. My first oncologist, not at a major center, wanted to do the colon resection, then chemo, then a liver resection, and then more chemo. The MSKCC onc disagreed with that protocol, and he made a good case for his treatment plan.

I second what another poster said: if your wife turns out to have liver involvement (I hope she doesn't) and she is a candidate for resection, go for surgery with curative intent! I am currently going through chemo and have no visible cancer.

Feel free to PM me.

Best to you both,
Donna

[zx10guy]

I wanted to also chime in here too. I had two 3 CM lesions in my liver when they did the initial CT scan on me after a 3 CM mass was found in my descending colon. The colonoscopy was done on Wednesday. The CT was done the next day on Thursday. I had my initial consult with my CRC surgeon on Friday of the week. It was followed up with a PET/CT on Monday the next week. I had my consult with the liver surgeon on the Wednesday after the PET. And my surgery was the next day on Thursday. The PET showed no activity in the two lesions in my liver but confirmed the activity in the 3 CM tumor in my colon. The liver surgeon postponed his Christmas travel to be in the OR on the day of my colon resection to do a biopsy of the two lesions in the liver to confirm the PET results. He said PETs can have both false positives and false negatives. If the biopsy came back positive for cancer, he would look into doing a liver resection before my colon was to be resected. The tissue samples were sent off for immediate validation and thankfully it came back negative. At that point, my CRC surgeon did his thing.

Mind you all that activity above was before any of the results came back from the biopsy of the tumor the GI doctor did during my colonoscopy. Since then, I've had two CT scans and an ultrasound done. The two 3 CM lesions have not changed and I'm just over a year past when I had my surgery. My final diagnosis via pathology is Stage 3B (T3N1M0) with only one lymph node. There is hope. And to declare your wife Stage 4 is a bit premature in my opinion; especially since a PET hasn't been done yet.

I've been extremely grateful everyone stepped up during that time to get me treated as fast as possible. The more miraculous thing was all this was during the Christmas holiday as it was on the Tuesday during the week I had my surgery. My GI doctor moved quickly to get me in touch with a CRC surgeon he considers one of the best and was able to express the urgency in having me be seen as soon as possible. My CRC surgeon moved quickly in getting a liver surgeon he considers one of the best involved. He wanted me to go straight to the liver surgeon's office after my appointment with him but the liver surgeon had already left for the day. My CRC surgeon in turn took the CT scans I brought to him over to the liver surgeon's home over the weekend so they could discuss my situation. One of the assistants in my CRC surgeon's office got on the phone and talked to my insurance company to get them to authorize a STAT order on getting my PET done. If they hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been able to get my PET scan done till the day after Christmas...a day before my surgery. And the radiology report might not even be ready for my surgeons to review till I was already in surgery.

The reason I've been very verbose with my story is that when you have a team of doctors which really do work well together, things can get done. I just wanted you to know what is possible if there is proper coordination between doctors.

[hummingbird3]

That is incredible! Just out of curiosity, was this at MSK or another top hospital? I have not heard of things moving so fast! So good to hear such a story!

[ecbreed]

Your wife's story sounds just like mine. I had hubby take me to the ER because I thought the pain was from my appendix. It wasn't. I had 4 mets in my liver, but here I am 2 years later.

[zx10guy]

That is incredible! Just out of curiosity, was this at MSK or another top hospital? I have not heard of things moving so fast! So good to hear such a story!

No. Not exactly. My initial doctors were not part of some major medical center. I'm just thankful my primary care physician had the foresight to send me to a GI specialist. In turn I'm fortunate that the PA who saw me at the GI's practice also had the foresight to immediately schedule a colonoscopy based on what I told her and the fact my mom has been going through treatment for non-cancerous polyps in her colon. Follow this up with the actual GI doctor who did my colonoscopy, found my tumor, and then quickly set my treatment plan in motion. He had immediately ordered a CT scan and blood work. I don't remember if he was influential in getting me in to have a CT scan the next day or not. Things were a blur because of how everything was moving so fast. The GI doctor also got me in touch with the chief CRC surgeon at the state's university teaching hospital. I think because of my GI doctor's relationship with the chief surgeon was why I was able to be squeezed in to see him with such short notice.

While I sometimes wonder if things might be different if there was a MSK in my backyard, I really don't know if anything would have changed based on what I've seen here on the forum compared to how my treatment went.