Cancer Survivors Network

Dear Melodyfj,

I am sorry to read about your mom. I am a 39 year old female and was diagnosed with choangio carcinoma in September. I had surgery 10 weeks ago to remove 1/2 my liver, resect my portal vein (tumor had attached to it) and "create" new bile ducts from my intestines. I was blessed with a physician who is not only brilliant, but incredibly compassionate! He is an hepatobiliary transplant specialist not an oncologist, but has extensive experience in this type of tumor. My last CT showed no spread, my lymph nodes were clear, and the liver margins were negative. I am considered cured. It is such a grim diagnosis to face, I sometimes have a hard time believing it is gone.
There is not a whole lot of information about bile duct cancer. About 3,000 people in the US develop it annually. So, that is about 1:100,000. It is hard to diagnose apparently (I had been tired for awhile and then suddenly became VERY jaundiced) and from what I have read not many physicians aggresively go after this. There are several known cause (liver flukes, primary schelorosong cholangitis for two examples) but many folks don't know what precipitates the cancer. They are not sure what caused mine. I guess it is more common in Asia, and in males over 60.
I wish you the best of luck as you try to cope with your loss.