Liver met treatment plan

[Girl111]

Has anyone been suggested chemo for a liver met plus 1 node ? Liver met only 16mm.

I thought they first need to get rid of the met ( esp since there's only 1) and then do chemo .

The team said they want to try chemo
First and then scan in 6-8 weeks again ,but there is no certainty right that the met will
Go with just chemo and the node too.

I just don't get y they won't remove the met first . They said they want to try and target the cells in the body first. !

Any experiences ?

Tin x

[ziggymonster]

I had a 1.9cm single liver met found 1 year after finishing chemo/surgery for my primary. My oncologist and liver surgeon both wanted me to do 3 cycles of folfiri+avastin prior to surgery. My tumor shrank by 50% and my CEA dropped from 4 to 2....I now am set to do my resection next Thurs, then my onc wants more chemo...same cocktail.

[elise]

Yes there are 4 options for liver mets (as far I know from my liver resection a few months back)

1- chemo then surgery
2- surgery then chemo
3- surgery only
4- chemo only

My liver surgeon prefers surgery then chemo in case the tumour shrinks so much that it's hard to find after and ensure good clean margins. My onc was happy to do that too.

Though I did not have any lymph nodes. I only had 1 liver met (around 15mm).

Elise

[Girl111]

I think may be as he has 1 node they are doing chemo approach so covers more area .

Anyone know what chemo they would give and are side effects bad ?

[dianetavegia]

1.6 cm. The size of a dime.

Well I completely disagree and would see a different liver surgeon tomorrow instead of letting a onc make this decision. I'm guessing it might be the location of the node. I had no positive nodes with my liver met.
I've said it before and I'll keep saying it......
Oncs give chemo
Surgeons operate with intent to cure
Radiologist do their thing....

Each one may give you a completely different answer. Like Elise said, it could shrink so small that they can't find it. Then what's going to happen? It's still there, just microscopic....... spitting out cells.

What do you know about the node? Where is it located? How large is it? Did it light up on the PET Scan?

[hart2hart]

Tina -

Surgery then chemo .....go for the Cure .......
Get another opinion. We are VERY glad we got that second opinion......!



Julie
Stamford, CT

[ForDad]

Another vote for surgery first then chemo. If the liver met was huge or in an inoperable location, it'd make sense to do chemo first. That, however, is not the case with your father. If the surgeon agrees with the onc about doing chemo first, I would seek for a second opinion elsewhere.

Good luck,
Sue

[Outdoorsy]

Thats a pretty standard treatment plan, there are several ways that they treat resectable liver mets, most of the variation is in the order of treatements and chemo regiment. Wife had colon resection immediately, 3 rounds of chemo (FOLFOX) then liver surgeon put the brakes on because mets were disappering, then liver resection then rest of FOLFOX. Some recovery time in between surgeries and chemo and chemo and surgery if that makes sense.

Make sure your medical oncologist is consulting with a liver surgeon, surgery if possible is a must and is much harder if the met disappears. It will probably come back if that sucker isn't cut out. Good luck!

[scottyg]

My surgeon had me do six rounds of chemo first. I was NOT happy about this, I wanted it out of me now! He explained that there were two questionable spots on my liver and that he did not want to have to go back in later to remove them if they were cancerous. Turned out that they were cysts. I did another six rounds of chemo after the surgery. No treatment since July 2012. NED!