CT scan

iluvmms
iluvmms Member Posts: 134 Member
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi everyone!
I had a scan on thursday. I had a met to liver that was large. It appears to have shrunk some to 4.5 cm x 5.5 cm and is less prominate?? Not sure waht that means for sure or how much it needs to shrink before surgery resection. That is the goal of my surgeon. It previous measured 5.7 x 6.9, and the scans were a 2 months apart. I have 2 more treatments still. Does anyone know the goal of the size before they can do a resection??

Comments

  • lisa42
    lisa42 Member Posts: 3,625 Member
    #2
    maybe has to do with location?
    Hi,

    I don't know about if there is a "good" size to get down to before having a resection. I would imagine though that it might also have to do with the location of the tumor and its accessibility. If a tumor is too close to a major blood vessel, etc., it could be problematic to do a resection on it. Maybe if that's the case, they're trying to shrink it down and away from a blood vessel. I actually had a major blood vessel cut out and permanently clamped off during my liver resection. When I had my resection, I had three tumors left that were visible on the CT (although they discovered three more during surgery that had never shown up on any CT- weird, but apparently not uncommon according to my surgeon). My largest was 3.5 cm. It started at 4.5 cm, but I don't remember the surgeon ever talking about a desired size for surgery.

    Remember, you should also seek out a 2nd opinion on this, if you haven't already done so.

    Best wishes-
    Lisa
  • iluvmms
    iluvmms Member Posts: 134 Member
    #3
    anyone????
    any other thoughts???
  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    #4
    Everyone is different
    I think like Lisa said, it could be more of a location issue than size. In my case, I had a larger tumor on my hepatic artery so they could not operate until they shrunk it. After 6 months it was down to a size where they felt they could take it out with safe margins and not risk cutting in to the artery. I've often asked my Oncologist how big/small the tumors are. She really doesn't put too much emphasis on that. We are either shrinking or keeping the tumors that I have stable. That is all I need to know.

    Why don't you ask your Oncologist/surgeon what the goal or target is?
    They could give you more reliable info that we can but I don't mind telling you my story.
    Keep shrinking 'em!
    -phil

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