Ablation for liver cancer

musiclover
musiclover Member Posts: 242
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
I've been reading about treatment of liver cancer with ablation. Has anyone experienced this? I'm trying to find encouraging words for my friend facing chemo and liver surgery. I'm not finding anything postive at the moment. HELP!

Comments

  • mikew42
    mikew42 Member Posts: 114 Member
    #2
    I had radio-frequancy ablation of small tumors to liver almost 1 1/2 years ago for stage 4 cc. The surgery is much less invasive than resection, although most of my research says resection is still considered the "gold standard" of treatment for mets. I chose ablation because my mets were small and ablation has about the same recurrence rate as resection for small tumors. I've been NED (confirmed again last Friday)for alnmost 1 1/2 years. Hope this helps. Mike
  • dash4
    dash4 Member Posts: 303 Member
    #3
    Hi, my husband is stageIV colon cancer and he had a colon resection and during the same surgery a liver resection and a liver ablation in 12/04. He had one month of chemo (5FU and Avastin and leucovorin) and shrunk the tumors 20%before the surgery. Then he had 5 1/2 months more of chemo. Although his cancer has returned in 10/05-his liver is still cancer free with normal function. I think that is very encouraging because you really need the liver to be functioning to tolerate many of the chemos. Hope this helps.
    Dash
  • musiclover
    musiclover Member Posts: 242
    #4
    Thanks so much! These two posts give me hope and I will pass these on to my friend. I really love this board. I've learned so much.
  • musiclover
    musiclover Member Posts: 242
    #5
    mikew42 said:

    I had radio-frequancy ablation of small tumors to liver almost 1 1/2 years ago for stage 4 cc. The surgery is much less invasive than resection, although most of my research says resection is still considered the "gold standard" of treatment for mets. I chose ablation because my mets were small and ablation has about the same recurrence rate as resection for small tumors. I've been NED (confirmed again last Friday)for alnmost 1 1/2 years. Hope this helps. Mike

    Mike, Did you have chemo before the abalation? Where did you have the surgery done? I'm in Los Angeles working with the best rectal surgeons I could find for my friend. I don't see how he can survive six more months of chemo right now THEN an invasive liver surgery. He's taking a long time to recover from the rectal sugery (weighs 121 now and they want to start the chemo soon). I found an ablation clinical trial that looks great. Would love to hear more from you about your experience if you have a chance. Thanks!

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