help ct results

KayeKay
KayeKay Member Posts: 122
in Colorectal Cancer #1

hi im new here and just been reading some discussions to find help. im 24 and was diagnosed stage 4 colon in feb. 2011 with liver and lymph node mets. ive been in remission. i had a ct in jan. of last yr. and they found a spot on the liver that they just monitored. they said it could be from the resection i had. had a ct last week and there is a new lesion. one is 14 mm with a hounsfield reading of 68 units and the other a reading of 43 units. mets cannot be ruled out. i want a resection. should i push for that considering i had 2 tumors there already?? any info will be greatly appreciated please!!

Comments

  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    #2
    What to Do...

    What are they suggesting, wait and see? An option you may want to consider is RFA (Radio Frequency Ablation). It's much less invasive than surgery and effective on small tumors. I've had them done a few times on my lung(s) with great results.

    just a thought.

  • KayeKay
    KayeKay Member Posts: 122
    #3
    PhillieG said:

    What to Do...

    What are they suggesting, wait and see? An option you may want to consider is RFA (Radio Frequency Ablation). It's much less invasive than surgery and effective on small tumors. I've had them done a few times on my lung(s) with great results.

    just a thought.

    go back to the doc wed. the

    go back to the doc wed. the chances of thia being mets againg is morw than likely right? ive never heard of rfa. what is it what dows it do and how is it done?

  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    #4
    KayeKay said:

    go back to the doc wed. the

    go back to the doc wed. the chances of thia being mets againg is morw than likely right? ive never heard of rfa. what is it what dows it do and how is it done?

    RFA

    An RFA is where they insert a needle into the tumor, then heat the needle via radio waves which destroys the tumor. I could only guess as to what your scan showed and I won't do that (guess that is) because I could be right or I could be wrong. Waiting sucks but having someone who doesn't know the whole story tell you it's this or that is wrong (IMO)

    some basic info: RFA

    -phil

  • KayeKay
    KayeKay Member Posts: 122
    #5
    PhillieG said:

    RFA

    An RFA is where they insert a needle into the tumor, then heat the needle via radio waves which destroys the tumor. I could only guess as to what your scan showed and I won't do that (guess that is) because I could be right or I could be wrong. Waiting sucks but having someone who doesn't know the whole story tell you it's this or that is wrong (IMO)

    some basic info: RFA

    -phil

    ok thank you very much. i

    ok thank you very much. i have never heard of rfa and i was treated at one of yhe top 50 cancer research hospitals in the country. is this new and does it have a good success rate? im not sure. my aunt has been in medicine for 30 years and she seems to think that its a great possibility that it has returned. anyways thank u for the info ill have to look into this rfa. much appreciatd 

  • KayeKay
    KayeKay Member Posts: 122
    #6
    KayeKay said:

    ok thank you very much. i

    ok thank you very much. i have never heard of rfa and i was treated at one of yhe top 50 cancer research hospitals in the country. is this new and does it have a good success rate? im not sure. my aunt has been in medicine for 30 years and she seems to think that its a great possibility that it has returned. anyways thank u for the info ill have to look into this rfa. much appreciatd 

    i was wondering if maybe you

    i was wondering if maybe you could explain this to me. one lesion is subcapsular on the right side measuring 14 mm and a hounsfield reading of 68 units. the other on the hepatic dome with a hounsfield reading of 43 units but they didnt list any measurements. is this just some medical jargon and their way of measuring? hounsfield and subcapsular?? good bad not quite sure. ive had plenty of these scans and always been able to understand them. i moved a year ago to another state and maybeits just theyre way of wording but these two words i havent come across before?

  • PhillieG
    PhillieG Member Posts: 4,866 Member
    #7
    KayeKay said:

    i was wondering if maybe you

    i was wondering if maybe you could explain this to me. one lesion is subcapsular on the right side measuring 14 mm and a hounsfield reading of 68 units. the other on the hepatic dome with a hounsfield reading of 43 units but they didnt list any measurements. is this just some medical jargon and their way of measuring? hounsfield and subcapsular?? good bad not quite sure. ive had plenty of these scans and always been able to understand them. i moved a year ago to another state and maybeits just theyre way of wording but these two words i havent come across before?

    I'm PhillieG, not Dr PhillieG :-)

    I have no friggin idea what it all means. Any info would just be a guess based on my just reading this: "the numeric information contained in each pixel of a CT image. It is related to the composition and nature of the tissue imaged and is used to represent the density of tissue. Also called CT number, Hounsfield number." So it is a unit of measure. 

    Im a firm believer of letting the experts interpret the scans. I hardly ever read the reports. I'm a big fan of looking over the scans with my Onc though. I'm more visually oriented I guess. If I really understood the jargon that would be different. I generally can follow what someone is explaining but giving an opinion to anyone concerning their health would be coo-coo Wink

    Once I had a doc who dealt with pain management interpret my CT scan (without my asking him to do so) and he told me "it looks great!". Well, it wasn't and I needed a procedure.

    But back to RFA's. they've been around for a while. Some facilities tend to use them more than others just as some will use HAI therapy (Hepatic Arterial Infusion (?)) pumps while others feel it's antiquated. I go to Sloan Kettering in NYC and they use both for the treatment of liver metastasis related to colon cancer.

    I was DX Stage IV CC Feb 2004

     

  • k1
    k1 Member Posts: 220 Member
    #8
    If they tell you it is

    If they tell you it is operable and that's an option, personally I would not want to wait until the lesions get bigger. 

    I was faced with a similar decision in 2011.  They saw three lesions on my liver but said they were not big enough to identify for sure as as being cancer, so my choices were to wait a few months for another scan to see if they grew bigger (therefore indicating more clearly they were cancer) or go ahead and have surgery, which would be my decision and could only be considered exploratory based on the appearance of the tiny lesions on the scan.

    I opted to have a resection surgery immediately.  It turned out they were actually five lesions on my liver, and three of them were cancerous, including one on each side of my liver and one of them dangerously close to a the large artery.

    I was very glad I had not delayed the surgery in favor of waiting more time for scans that would show 100 percent that the lesions were growing or indicative of cancer.  Resection was my only chance to slow down or stop my cancer in its tracks.

    Good luck, whatever you decide to do. 

    K1

  • Phil64
    Phil64 Member Posts: 838 Member
    #9
    suggestion

    As an additional suggestion, I'd ask your doctor to do an MRI of the liver as well.  In my case the CT scan's showed a healthy liver; however, the MRI showed tumors.  I think both images are justified as they help to get a better picture of what you are dealing with. I certainly don't ever want to rely on the CT scan alone as the sole source of information about liver lesions.

  • Fucc
    Fucc Member Posts: 92 Member
    #10
    Push for more testing.  Ask

    Push for more testing.  Ask for an MRI to helpdetermine if the elisions are in fact mets. This is what I did. I had a 5mm spot, which was thought initially to be nothing, but after an MRI it was co firmed to be a met. If yours turn it to be mets, push to have a liver resection to cut them out.  Surgery is the best shot of cure for stage iv disease. The sooner the better. I had liver election surgery in August, it wasn't too bad and my met was removed with clear margins. So far I am Ned and hope to stay that way. 

  • KayeKay
    KayeKay Member Posts: 122
    #11
    Fucc said:

    Push for more testing.  Ask

    Push for more testing.  Ask for an MRI to helpdetermine if the elisions are in fact mets. This is what I did. I had a 5mm spot, which was thought initially to be nothing, but after an MRI it was co firmed to be a met. If yours turn it to be mets, push to have a liver resection to cut them out.  Surgery is the best shot of cure for stage iv disease. The sooner the better. I had liver election surgery in August, it wasn't too bad and my met was removed with clear margins. So far I am Ned and hope to stay that way. 

    great

    thank u all so much! i was hoping someone with a similar problem would read this. yes thats what worries me is that there is more that are not showing up on the scan. that happened my first time around with this. there was 1 and when they got in there they found 2. im going to c a surgical oncologist friday and def. gonna go through with a resection. i spoke to my former onc. since ive moved outta state and without seeing the scan yet he said surgery and chemo and to find  a new onc since the last one said watch it and see if it grows. thank u all so much! ill do my best to stay updated.

  • PatchAdams
    PatchAdams Member Posts: 271
    #12
    Surgery would always be my choice!

    Two-Stage Resection and Improved Chemotherapy Regimens Lengthen Survival for Patients with Liver Metastases from Colorectal Cancer

     

    I haven't had two stage, but a friend on another site shared this new article. 

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