Liver Mets and Radiation

westie66
westie66 Member Posts: 642
in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi all: I have a met to my liver (as well as several to the peritoneum but am not eligible for the stripping/HIPEC surgery) and my oncologist is recommending radiation as no one will operate on it with the mets to the peritoneum. Here in Ontario they don't seem to do the SIR thing or whatever it is called.

Has anyone had radiation to the liver? If so, what is the sequencing - every day for a set number of weeks? Did it hurt? Scar Tissue? Did it work?

Thanks!

Cheryl

Comments

  • janie1
    janie1 Member Posts: 753 Member
    #2
    Hi Cheryl
    When I was first dx'd over a year ago, the first oncologist said radiation couldn't be done on the liver. But several months ago, I read about Truebeam as a way to radiate liver tumors. I do not know of anyone that has had this done. But if you do a search on it, it is used quite a few places. I do not know about in Canada, but there are places in the U.S. Maybe you could call one of the places and see what they say about it. I sometimes wonder, too, if it would be even better than RFA, or cyberknife to the lungs....but never inquired about that...yet.

    Wishing the best for you.
  • biglaur
    biglaur Member Posts: 72 Member
    #3
    I had radiation to a liver met
    I had one met in the liver and one in the lung (dx Sept '06 ) After surgery...and 5 rounds of chemo (with a clinical trial drug thrown in) they wanted to do surgery to remove both mets before I completed my 12 rounds of chemo. I was so sick, thin and weak I just couldn't face surgery (I didn't really enjoy the resection) so my doc and I met a radio-oncologist Dr. Arno Mundt at UCSD...who is absolutely brilliant and told me he could get rid of the mets with stereotactic radiation. I liked the sound of that much better than surgery so went with him. Lots of mapping, tattooing and laying on uncomfortable tables to get the measurements right...then 9 zaps over 2 weeks, 6 to the liver, 3 to the lung (basically every other day) NO side effects...NONE. The sessions lasted about 20 minutes...most of it tweaking me to get the positioning right...then 10 minutes or so in a big scary machine that revolves around you zapping from all angles. They warned me that I could be tired or have some redness on my skin but neither happened. I even threw a big wedding for my daughter 2 days after my last treatment. Since I was in a clinical trial I was required to have a ct scan every 6 weeks...my radio-onc warned everyone that my scans would be worrisome for several months because of inflammation and sure enough...everyone panicked with the first 2 scans...but things quieted down after that. I resumed my chemo right away (I had taken 5 weeks off to get strong for my daughter's wedding and the radiation) and completed my treatment. I have been NED and off ALL treatment since August '09. Send me a PM if you have any questions...
    Laurie
  • smokeyjoe
    smokeyjoe Member Posts: 1,425 Member
    #4
    biglaur said:

    I had radiation to a liver met
    I had one met in the liver and one in the lung (dx Sept '06 ) After surgery...and 5 rounds of chemo (with a clinical trial drug thrown in) they wanted to do surgery to remove both mets before I completed my 12 rounds of chemo. I was so sick, thin and weak I just couldn't face surgery (I didn't really enjoy the resection) so my doc and I met a radio-oncologist Dr. Arno Mundt at UCSD...who is absolutely brilliant and told me he could get rid of the mets with stereotactic radiation. I liked the sound of that much better than surgery so went with him. Lots of mapping, tattooing and laying on uncomfortable tables to get the measurements right...then 9 zaps over 2 weeks, 6 to the liver, 3 to the lung (basically every other day) NO side effects...NONE. The sessions lasted about 20 minutes...most of it tweaking me to get the positioning right...then 10 minutes or so in a big scary machine that revolves around you zapping from all angles. They warned me that I could be tired or have some redness on my skin but neither happened. I even threw a big wedding for my daughter 2 days after my last treatment. Since I was in a clinical trial I was required to have a ct scan every 6 weeks...my radio-onc warned everyone that my scans would be worrisome for several months because of inflammation and sure enough...everyone panicked with the first 2 scans...but things quieted down after that. I resumed my chemo right away (I had taken 5 weeks off to get strong for my daughter's wedding and the radiation) and completed my treatment. I have been NED and off ALL treatment since August '09. Send me a PM if you have any questions...
    Laurie

    Cheryl, so happy your
    Cheryl, so happy your oncologist is suggesting something more for you, what Laurie above has had sounds great.

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