Please help - CT Scan results

Devasted

CT Scan of Abodomen:
Solid hepatic lesions are again seen and are consistent with the liver metastases.
One of the larger lesions is seen in the left lobe (segment 2) measuring 2 x 2.6 cm.
Previously this measured 2.2 x 1.8 cm. An additional larger leison is seen in the right lobe under the hemidiaphragm, measuring 3x3 cm currently and preiously 1.8 x 2.2 c. This is consistent with the progression of metastases. The lesions present do appear to have enlarged. Some mildly prominent mesenteric lymph nodes with some ground-glass opacity in the mesentery are noted and are without signigicant change. No enlarged retroperitoneal lymph nodes are seen. The remainder of the solid organs are unremarkable. No dilated loops of bowel are seen.

Compared to studies dated 5/26/09

This isn't good, is it? He just finished xeloda and radiation for 5 1/2 weeks, all
went well until this ct scan...meet with dr tomorrow. There is hope, right?

I need some experience here, what do you think? Thank you in advance

sfmarie

HOPE
There is always hope. Something I learned from the many survivors of this board; don't give up hope. Keep fighting and searching until you receive the care and treatment you are looking for.

There are other chemo drugs that work, perhaps they will put him on a different cocktail. I went to a talk last night about the latest treatments in radiation and one thing they mentioned is it does take some time for the tumors to react to the radiation, and that is why they generally do not do scans right after radiation. They usually wait; radiation destroys the DNA of the cells, so when they try to replicate (spread) they can't.

Devasted

sfmarie said:

HOPE
There is always hope. Something I learned from the many survivors of this board; don't give up hope. Keep fighting and searching until you receive the care and treatment you are looking for.

There are other chemo drugs that work, perhaps they will put him on a different cocktail. I went to a talk last night about the latest treatments in radiation and one thing they mentioned is it does take some time for the tumors to react to the radiation, and that is why they generally do not do scans right after radiation. They usually wait; radiation destroys the DNA of the cells, so when they try to replicate (spread) they can't.

Thanks
The radiation was for rectal mass and thankfullly the sysmptoms with that are gone.
The liver is the problem now.

Thanks for the encouraging words. You're right, there is always hope....

Fight for my love

Devasted said:

Thanks
The radiation was for rectal mass and thankfullly the sysmptoms with that are gone.
The liver is the problem now.

Thanks for the encouraging words. You're right, there is always hope....

There is always hope,this is
There is always hope,this is for sure.It sounds like your hubby just started the treatment not too long ago.I think the doctors have to solve the problems one by one.If the first step is rectum,after it is totally treated,the second step should be liver.Yon know,what I learned from this board is just take one day at a time,finally everything will be fine.Good luck to you and your husband.Take care.

lesvanb

Take a deep breath first
which has been effective advice given to me when faced with "now what." And I'm very sorry that you're having to go through all these ups and downs.

I was diagnosed stage 4 rectal cancer with one one met to the liver May 08, and NED now after the year of treatments. I think from what you are describing this is the start of his treatments with radiation/chemo to treat the rectal tumor. When I had complications from the radiation/chemo (bacterial overgrowth infection in the GI tract) and had to go off chemo for a couple of weeks, the radiation and medical oncologist said that this phase of the treatment was primarily to treat the rectal tumor and shrink it. I never missed a radiation treatment. I was taking xeloda and oxaliplatin (1/2 the regular dose 1x/week) in my chemo cocktail during radiation. The oxaliplatin is used to do some treatment for the liver. Is this part of his regimen now? Also one chemo drug can work for one person and not the other.

It's also a good news piece that the remainder of the solid organs are unremarkable.

When you talk to the doc ask him how concerned he is about this CT. What other options are available? What is his overall vision of the treatment plan?

Hang in there, Leslie

Devasted

lesvanb said:

Take a deep breath first
which has been effective advice given to me when faced with "now what." And I'm very sorry that you're having to go through all these ups and downs.

I was diagnosed stage 4 rectal cancer with one one met to the liver May 08, and NED now after the year of treatments. I think from what you are describing this is the start of his treatments with radiation/chemo to treat the rectal tumor. When I had complications from the radiation/chemo (bacterial overgrowth infection in the GI tract) and had to go off chemo for a couple of weeks, the radiation and medical oncologist said that this phase of the treatment was primarily to treat the rectal tumor and shrink it. I never missed a radiation treatment. I was taking xeloda and oxaliplatin (1/2 the regular dose 1x/week) in my chemo cocktail during radiation. The oxaliplatin is used to do some treatment for the liver. Is this part of his regimen now? Also one chemo drug can work for one person and not the other.

It's also a good news piece that the remainder of the solid organs are unremarkable.

When you talk to the doc ask him how concerned he is about this CT. What other options are available? What is his overall vision of the treatment plan?

Hang in there, Leslie

Thanks Leslie
You're right phase one was to treat the rectal tumor and he had xeloda and radiation only.
And I guess it worked because there are no symptoms now(bleeding, pressure, etc) was hoping
maybe the xeloda took out the liver mets, too....xeloda and radiation went faily well, no real side effects.

He has not had oxaliplatin, from your experience how were the side effects? He is scheduled
for an EUS Sept 28. to check the rectal tumor and access it's effectiveness. Tomorrow
we meet with the liver oncol. surgeon. And you're right, the good news is other organs
appear to be ok.

Thanks so much for the questions to ask, will certainly add them to my list.
This board is so much help, I feel better and hopeful that we'll have better results
with the next step.

lesvanb

Devasted said:

Thanks Leslie
You're right phase one was to treat the rectal tumor and he had xeloda and radiation only.
And I guess it worked because there are no symptoms now(bleeding, pressure, etc) was hoping
maybe the xeloda took out the liver mets, too....xeloda and radiation went faily well, no real side effects.

He has not had oxaliplatin, from your experience how were the side effects? He is scheduled
for an EUS Sept 28. to check the rectal tumor and access it's effectiveness. Tomorrow
we meet with the liver oncol. surgeon. And you're right, the good news is other organs
appear to be ok.

Thanks so much for the questions to ask, will certainly add them to my list.
This board is so much help, I feel better and hopeful that we'll have better results
with the next step.

oxaliplatin side effects during radiation
I didn't have any major side effects form the oxaliplatin when I took it during radiation. I only ended up taking 4 (1/2 dosage. The last infusion was painful going into the vein in the hand. After both my surgeries, I had a port installed and recommend it for the oxaliplatin. After 9 infusions FOLFOX plus one more of 5FU and leukovorin, I now have grade 1 neuropathy in the soles of my feet and tips of fingers. I also had sensitivity to cold, no cold liquids, diarrhea, TMJ joint clenching, and some neuropathy after tx #7, but it would go away in the week off until after the last tx. There's lots of folks here who can give more ingfo on oxalplatin side effects.

Good luck with your appt tomorrow,
Leslie

sfmarie

Devasted said:

Thanks Leslie
You're right phase one was to treat the rectal tumor and he had xeloda and radiation only.
And I guess it worked because there are no symptoms now(bleeding, pressure, etc) was hoping
maybe the xeloda took out the liver mets, too....xeloda and radiation went faily well, no real side effects.

He has not had oxaliplatin, from your experience how were the side effects? He is scheduled
for an EUS Sept 28. to check the rectal tumor and access it's effectiveness. Tomorrow
we meet with the liver oncol. surgeon. And you're right, the good news is other organs
appear to be ok.

Thanks so much for the questions to ask, will certainly add them to my list.
This board is so much help, I feel better and hopeful that we'll have better results
with the next step.

Liver
The talk I went to last night at Stanford specifically talked about the Cyberknife and how it is used in treating mets to the liver. It sounds very promising.

shrevebud

Hello:

Sorry you two are having to go through all of this. I have had tumors in both lobes of my liver for two and a half years and I am still going strong, working full-time, etc. It's in your favor that there is no other involvement. Besides a lot of chemotherapy (which included oxaliplatin for a time) I have undergone chemoembolization to my liver twice within this past year. It requires hospitalization - you might ask about that procedure and also about radio frequency ablation - I haven't had that done, but am asking around about it. Just know there are options and hope is a great thing to have - I wouldn't still be here now if I didn't have hope. Keep us posted and know that I will be thinking about your situation. Take care. Roy

shrevebud

Something I forgot
Hi again:

If they say anything about the possibility of a liver resection you all might want to really consider that. Unfortunately for me, the way my tumors are I'm not a candidate for surgery - if I had been I would have had that done from the beginning. Again, best of luck to you. Roy

Sundanceh

shrevebud said:

Hello:

Sorry you two are having to go through all of this. I have had tumors in both lobes of my liver for two and a half years and I am still going strong, working full-time, etc. It's in your favor that there is no other involvement. Besides a lot of chemotherapy (which included oxaliplatin for a time) I have undergone chemoembolization to my liver twice within this past year. It requires hospitalization - you might ask about that procedure and also about radio frequency ablation - I haven't had that done, but am asking around about it. Just know there are options and hope is a great thing to have - I wouldn't still be here now if I didn't have hope. Keep us posted and know that I will be thinking about your situation. Take care. Roy

RFA
Hello Roy

RFA is very effective on treating tumors of the liver. They did the radio frequency ablation procedure on my liver and burned a tumor the size of a small orange out of there.

There were outlying remnants of the tumor that RFA did not go, because we were close to blood vessels...so we did CyberKnife treatments (3) to kill off that tumor at the local level. Systemic chemo followed.

And RFA has an equal or even better chance at success than liver resection...a very small percentage of people are lucky to qualify for resection...that's what they were going to do to me until they opened me up...found I had a fatty liver and switched over to RFA...said I would get cancer back in liver within a year...had it done Dec 2007 so it's been 20-months and no activity back in my liver...another 4 months and it will be 2 years, so far so good in my opinion.

Take care
-Craig

PhillieG

I haven't read everyone's advice, I'm sure it's all good.
For me, I don't try to decipher the radiologist's report, I leave that to my Oncologist. The few times I've looked I have found that I get a different impression than what it actually turns out to be.
There is ALWAYS hope, and BTW, the report doesn't sound that bad to me.
There are a few "this or that is NOT seen" in there.
Hang in there...
-phil

Unknown

This comment has been removed by the Moderator

shrevebud

Sundanceh said:

RFA
Hello Roy

RFA is very effective on treating tumors of the liver. They did the radio frequency ablation procedure on my liver and burned a tumor the size of a small orange out of there.

There were outlying remnants of the tumor that RFA did not go, because we were close to blood vessels...so we did CyberKnife treatments (3) to kill off that tumor at the local level. Systemic chemo followed.

And RFA has an equal or even better chance at success than liver resection...a very small percentage of people are lucky to qualify for resection...that's what they were going to do to me until they opened me up...found I had a fatty liver and switched over to RFA...said I would get cancer back in liver within a year...had it done Dec 2007 so it's been 20-months and no activity back in my liver...another 4 months and it will be 2 years, so far so good in my opinion.

Take care
-Craig

RFA
Thanks Craig for the info on RFA. I've copied your reply and I'm definitely going to ask about it soon. This is good information to have.

Take care, Roy

hopefulone

Always
There is ALWAYS hope.
My husband was told unresectable at start of dx for multiple liver mets almost 3 years ago and probably never would be. After 6 months xeloda,avastin and oxalplatinun, became resectable. We were told it progressed 6 weeks later, then told - no cancer it was scar tissue. 3 months later we were told it reoccurred. We sought out other doctors, had rfa done in november of last year, told not a candidate for resection again.. We again sought out another aggressive surgeon. He just had a 2nd liver resection last wed and coming home tomorrow after having 70 percent of his liver removed thanks to God and our persistance. Please be sure to get second and third opinions if you are not comfortable with the answers you get tomorrow. Will be praying for him. I have learned that faith makes things possible, not easy.

God Bless and Keep the faith.

dixchi

hopefulone said:

Always
There is ALWAYS hope.
My husband was told unresectable at start of dx for multiple liver mets almost 3 years ago and probably never would be. After 6 months xeloda,avastin and oxalplatinun, became resectable. We were told it progressed 6 weeks later, then told - no cancer it was scar tissue. 3 months later we were told it reoccurred. We sought out other doctors, had rfa done in november of last year, told not a candidate for resection again.. We again sought out another aggressive surgeon. He just had a 2nd liver resection last wed and coming home tomorrow after having 70 percent of his liver removed thanks to God and our persistance. Please be sure to get second and third opinions if you are not comfortable with the answers you get tomorrow. Will be praying for him. I have learned that faith makes things possible, not easy.

God Bless and Keep the faith.

Hope
as others have said, there is always hope, be
careful how you read reports, first they are
in medical language, second, you are reading them
from a personal, emotional point of view and things
can seem worse than what they are. I have to
admit that I don't wait to get to the doc to
hear about a report anymore; I pick up my own
copy and read it; that way I lessen the scanxiety
and can hear my doc better at the appointment but
I am always cautioning myself that I am capable
of putting a layer of negative emotions on top
of what I'm reading...the report only states what
has been found....not how it can be treated.

Huggs,
Barbara

Devasted

dixchi said:

Hope
as others have said, there is always hope, be
careful how you read reports, first they are
in medical language, second, you are reading them
from a personal, emotional point of view and things
can seem worse than what they are. I have to
admit that I don't wait to get to the doc to
hear about a report anymore; I pick up my own
copy and read it; that way I lessen the scanxiety
and can hear my doc better at the appointment but
I am always cautioning myself that I am capable
of putting a layer of negative emotions on top
of what I'm reading...the report only states what
has been found....not how it can be treated.

Huggs,
Barbara

Thank you all so much
Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words. I can't tell you how much
your shared experiences have helped me and given us hope.

My husband has visit with onc. tomorrow to discuss systemic chemo.
Will check back with you when we know the details.

Again, can't thank you enough!