Lo-oc wrote:... Laparoscopic liver resection set for June 6th, and radiation to start right after, so no chemo until after that's wrapped up...
Lo-oc -
Good luck on your liver resection next week! We'll be thinking about you on Monday.
I don't know much about liver resections, but I noticed that the College of American Pathologists (CAP) has a template for primary liver cancer resections (see link below). You might be able to gain some insight about the surgery by looking at the template and noticing what kinds of pathology data elements are required, and what kinds are only optional. The document states clearly that this template is not designed for reporting of metastasis resections. However, there is no template specifically designed for mets so the template below is probably the closest one that might apply.
I'm not even sure what kind of pathology report will be generated from your liver resection (if any), but if they do generate a path report it would be good if you could be sure to get a copy of it (not just an oral summary of it) and try to understand the findings. The template cited below has references to hepatic steatosis and other indicators of liver health, so you might be able to get some idea about the important things that a pathologist would be looking for and also get some idea about how fast your liver remnant can recover from the surgery, given whatever liver abnormalities you already have.
Apparently there is no template designed specifically for the reporting of genomic biomarkers found in liver resections, so I'm not sure if they will be sending any resected tumor tissue out for genomic testing. But you could always ask the surgeon if there is a way for you to get genomic testing done on the resected tumor because the test might have some useful information for future treatment planning. It might require special authorization from your insurance company, however, or the surgeon might say that the information gained from such a test might not be worth all the expense.
Also, you might be able to get some feedback from members here who have already had liver resections and who might have received path reports from their surgeries.
Primary Liver Cancer - Pathology Template
https://documents.cap.org/protocols/Liv ... _CAPCP.pdf
There is also no template defined for liver cancer biometric (genomic) markers, but there is a template for colorectal cancer genomic biomarkers. (see below). This template lists some of the main mutations found in colorectal cancer specimens, e.g., KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, PIK3CA, HER2, etc.
Colorectal Cancer - Pathology Biomarker Template
https://documents.cap.org/protocols/ColoRectal.Bmk_1.3.0.0.REL_CAPCP.pdf
Another question you might ask is whether your liver mets are considered oligometastases or not.
"Patients with limited metastatic disease in which long-term control or even cure may be achievable are regarded as oligometastatic. The definition of oligometastatic is continually evolving, but typically refers to patients with 1-3, or 1-5 metastases".
Reference: https://appliedradiationoncology.com/ar ... metastases
Good luck, and take care ...