The Colon Club

Hello!

My mother was told that her primary cancer originated from her rectal tumor. Her initial CT in the ER showed her liver Mets but we did not find out about her rectal tumor until her colonoscopy the next day. They actually could not even advance the scope due to the size of the rectal tumor and had to cancel the rest of the colonoscopy. She has had 5 rounds of only chemo since and her follow up CT scan showed her liver Mets shrunk. However both CT scans did not mention anything about her rectal tumor. My question is how do we know the rectal tumor size now? I asked the oncologist but she said if the liver mets shrunk then the rectal tumor shrunk too. How can she know that if the CT didn’t even mention anything about it? I just feel like these doctors have already given up on her since she’s stage 4.

Thanks guys

ilovemyfrenchie wrote:Hello!

My mother was told that her primary cancer originated from her rectal tumor. Her initial CT in the ER showed her liver Mets but we did not find out about her rectal tumor until her colonoscopy the next day. They actually could not even advance the scope due to the size of the rectal tumor and had to cancel the rest of the colonoscopy. She has had 5 rounds of only chemo since and her follow up CT scan showed her liver Mets shrunk. However both CT scans did not mention anything about her rectal tumor. My question is how do we know the rectal tumor size now? I asked the oncologist but she said if the liver mets shrunk then the rectal tumor shrunk too. How can she know that if the CT didn’t even mention anything about it? I just feel like these doctors have already given up on her since she’s stage 4.

Thanks guys

They can get very accurate information on size and extent of invasion of rectal tumors by doing an MRI. Have they tried doing that?

In the NAPRC Standards Manual Section 2.3 they have a standard for describing rectal tumors by MRI.

ilovemyfrenchie wrote:Hello!

My mother was told that her primary cancer originated from her rectal tumor. Her initial CT in the ER showed her liver Mets but we did not find out about her rectal tumor until her colonoscopy the next day. They actually could not even advance the scope due to the size of the rectal tumor and had to cancel the rest of the colonoscopy. She has had 5 rounds of only chemo since and her follow up CT scan showed her liver Mets shrunk. However both CT scans did not mention anything about her rectal tumor. My question is how do we know the rectal tumor size now? I asked the oncologist but she said if the liver mets shrunk then the rectal tumor shrunk too. How can she know that if the CT didn’t even mention anything about it? I just feel like these doctors have already given up on her since she’s stage 4.

Thanks guys

MRI and or PET scan will give them what they need.
Take care

They could also do a sigmoidoscopy. My surgeon did that after chemo/radiation and said only scar tissue remained. I also had a pet scan that showed no cancer and said especially in distal rectal area.