MD Anderson Experience

impactzone

Has anyone gone there for Stage 4 treatment? Again I have 1 liver met on the back of the right lobe. It lit up on PET and shows on CT. There is also a 4mm indeterminant spot on my left lobe that did not light up under PET Scan. Right now the oncs want me to do 3 - 6 months of chemo. They want to see if the tumor shrinks and see if the Folfox +Avastin works. The surgeons say, lets get that out right now, which means no avastin. 2 weeks ago I went through surgery for the colon and have seemed to recover from that well.

When looking at all the data it seems surgery is the preferred option for mets. Mine is 2.9 x 1.8 cm located on the back of the liver so they could not get at it during the first surgery. They said they needed a thoracic surgeon to go through the chest, under the lungs and through the diaphragm to get at the met spot.

MD Anderson seems to be a leader in RFA and maybe they could even use that technology.

vinny3

There is no doubt that if a lesion is amenable to being removed by surgery that gives the best result. It seems if you could get that surgery then do the chemo after. I have no experience with MD Anderson but from what I hear it is great.
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jana11

I've gotten all my care at MDAnderson. When I had my most recent mets - the surgeon wanted me to do chemo first to make sure the cancer would respond to it. Get a second opinion!! Go to MDA and meet some people.

RFA is OK, but resection is superior if it is an option. Cutting the stuff out is the best chance for cure/longer remission.

Definately get more information. Call to get appts set up. The smaller spot is so tiny that it is typical that it wouldn't light up on PET scan.

Whenever doctors disagree, get a second opinion to get more infomation. At one point I went to NY to talk to the docs at Sloan Kettering.

Best of luck... stay strong. jana