pdp497 wrote:I have now received a second opinion and again been told surgery is not an option for me. They can't remove the liver tumors so they won't even think about removing the colon tumor. I was told there is no point as if all the cancer can't be removed it would just come back. I can't figure out why the doctors want to take the option off the table it seems that several others are in the same boat, while I've seen others in here that have receive numerous surgeries. Is it just that my doctors are not as aggressive? Do I need to be pushing more? I'm still months out from hearing the effect of my first round of chemo but the waiting is killing me. I just wish I knew my doctor was being as aggressive as possible.
veckon wrote: I am currently considered inoperable as well, so I understand your frustration. However my liver surgeon at Sloan Kettering felt that he could fully resect the liver and still leave enough to recover and my initial surgical consults were not optimistic at all. Thanks to MSK’s willingness to give it a shot, the surgeon realized he could actually perform the surgery in the end with only about 1/3 of the liver removed. Initial estimate was more like 2/3, so a clever surgeon can seemingly sometimes do things others find impossible. Unfortunately it didn’t work out because of damn peritoneum metastases, but I still feel appreciative that they tried and I am now satisfied with why I am inoperable.
pdp497 wrote:veckon wrote: I am currently considered inoperable as well, so I understand your frustration. However my liver surgeon at Sloan Kettering felt that he could fully resect the liver and still leave enough to recover and my initial surgical consults were not optimistic at all. Thanks to MSK’s willingness to give it a shot, the surgeon realized he could actually perform the surgery in the end with only about 1/3 of the liver removed. Initial estimate was more like 2/3, so a clever surgeon can seemingly sometimes do things others find impossible. Unfortunately it didn’t work out because of damn peritoneum metastases, but I still feel appreciative that they tried and I am now satisfied with why I am inoperable.
Veckon,
I recall seeing you were being treated with Keytruda, are the docs hoping it can lead to another shot at surgery in the future?
Volfan wrote:My wife and I had this discussion over the weekend. I will have treatment number 10 this coming Monday and if doc doesn't act like he wants to be real aggressive with my treatment after first line of treatment is done I'll be getting a second opinion.
Now I'm really pleased with my doc and he has told me earlier that there could be numerous scenarios going forward but before I just accept chemo for life I at least want to hear from someone else.
Volfan wrote:The scenarios doc went over with me depends on how well I respond to the treatment.
1. I get a complete response on liver mets and they go in and remove what needs to be from rectum.
2. I get complete response on one liver met and go remove the other.
3. The liver mets become stable (not sure what that means) and we continue with chemo. 5fu and avastin.
4. I get complete response on one liver met the other is stable and we wait and watch.
5. Try to get the cancer to a chronic status and I go on and off chemo by watching my cea and scans.
Since I'm kind of in the groove of treatment now I see the doc once a month. We have even talked about just seeing him once every 6 weeks.
Doc checks my cea once a month and for the foreseeable future it will stay that way.
I know you just started treatment and everything looks pretty screwed up right now but after only 5 treatments my liver mets had shrunk 40% on average. So try to stay positive.
For me the hardest part so far is the stage you are in. Just diagnosed and just starting treatment is scary with all the uncertaintys we have. But for me once I got into a routine my mindset improved greatly.
After the chemo started killing some cancer I got my energy back. Felt like going out and went back to work.
Volfan wrote:The scenarios doc went over with me depends on how well I respond to the treatment.
1. I get a complete response on liver mets and they go in and remove what needs to be from rectum.
2. I get complete response on one liver met and go remove the other.
3. The liver mets become stable (not sure what that means) and we continue with chemo. 5fu and avastin.
4. I get complete response on one liver met the other is stable and we wait and watch.
5. Try to get the cancer to a chronic status and I go on and off chemo by watching my cea and scans.
Since I'm kind of in the groove of treatment now I see the doc once a month. We have even talked about just seeing him once every 6 weeks.
Doc checks my cea once a month and for the foreseeable future it will stay that way.
I know you just started treatment and everything looks pretty screwed up right now but after only 5 treatments my liver mets had shrunk 40% on average. So try to stay positive.
For me the hardest part so far is the stage you are in. Just diagnosed and just starting treatment is scary with all the uncertaintys we have. But for me once I got into a routine my mindset improved greatly.
After the chemo started killing some cancer I got my energy back. Felt like going out and went back to work.
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