Gallbladder Cancer Diagnosis

KCFlash said:

Leo Lady and gbcinwa -

Leo Lady and gbcinwa - Congratulations to both of you!! That is exciting and encouraging news.   i am still in the process of the neo adjuvant chemo therapy before new scans and testing to determine surgery for the resection.   I will be interested to hear how you both recover after the surgery.    If I am lucky the re-evaluation will be the last week of August.    I have 2 rounds left of the cisplatin and gemzar and that chemo has been a bear.   2 weeks on and one week off.    I am so excited to hear of your good news and it gives me hope.    gbcinwa - my oncologist mentioned something about more chemo after surgery I am hoping it's the oral chemo you are discussing.     I have a friend that had breast cancer and she's on the oral chemo (not sure if it's the same thing) but she does very well and it does not make her sick at all.    Keep posting your progress and congratulations to all!

 

Thank you KC Flash!  I will update everyone after post-op doc visits..

P.S. Yay - we're ALL going to make it!

nweibel said:

Need opinions

i am a breast cancer survivor, but know nothing about gallbladder cancer so I am seeking advice.  I have cirrhosis from Hep C so I get routine ultrasounds to check for liver cancer.  My previous one was a year ago.  I just had one a few weeks ago and it shows a 13 mm gallbladder polyp.  A year ago the polyp was 8 mm. Everything that I have read shows that the gallbladder needs to be removed when larger than 10 mm/1 cm.  My gastro doctor does not want me to do that because he is afraid that the anesthesia will cause my liver to decompensate.  He wants me to wait and have another ultrasound in 6 months.  I am really uncomfortable with waiting that long since it grew 5 mm in a year.  We compromised and will do another scan in 3 mos.  I have no symptoms and my labs are stable.  Any advice from people who have been there/done that?  Thank you so much for anything that you can offer me. I am not asking for medical advice, just what your experiences were and how you discovered your malignancy.  Would you do anything different? Nancy

Hi nweibel -

In my experience so far, trusting my intuition and being persistent is what eventually led to my diagnosis, and ironically it was not the gallbladder area that was bothering me (which still remains a mystery, incidentally).  I had no classic symptoms of any kind of gallbladder disease whatsoever. 

Do you think your physician would consider ordering a CT scan or other form of imaging in addition to the ultrasound?  The reason I ask is because I had both an ultrasound and a CT scan done in that order (at the same facility) and although the ultrasound showed a 'lesion' as it was called, it was actually the CT scan that showed a more detailed image and description of the lesion, and suggested considering adenocarcinoma of the gallbladder.  This is what really what got things moving along for me, and thankfully so.  

I hope that helps...good luck.

nweibel said:

Thanks LeoLady.  I usually

Thanks LeoLady.  I usually trust my intuitions and am not sure why my doctor doesn’t jut take out my gallbladder and be done with this.  I would rather deal with the liver issues than gallbladder cancer.  He is a gastro doctor so this is his field.  I think that I will talk to my primary care doctor.  I read the CT scans weren’t as good as ultrasounds, but that wasn’t the case for you.  Pet scans are the best but they are costly.  Thank you so much for your insight.  I wish you the best.

Well again - good luck and hope it turns out to just be a polyp.    

After seeing the oncologist this past week I am now faced with the decision of whether to observe and just do continued monitoring/testing or to have chemo just in case there are any microscopic malignant cells that were left undetected.  The treatment that is being recommended is 8 cycles of cisplatin and gemzar with 2 weeks on and 1 week off, beginning the week after next.  

I originally was very adamant on not receiving chemo specifically because there is no real data claiming it is beneficial in this scenario, and I feel that the potential side effects of the chemo for a 'maybe' are not worth it, however now I am a bit perplexed.  After talking to the oncologist, family and friends who feel that if the chemo offers even a maybe teeny tiny chance of no recurrence then maybe I should do it. 

I just don't know if chemo is the answer for me right now.  And although I am much better, I am still somewhat recovering from the resection surgery.  It would be different if there were malignant tumors or if there were concrete data to support doing the treatment.    

This post is pretty much thinking out loud because I do need to sit with this for a bit and also talk to more people.  I wish there were more long term survivors that could offer some advice and most of all I wish there were guarantees.  While I believe in honoring personal intuition and realize everybody's path is different and what's right for one may not be for another, sometimes one thing that somebody says could be a lightbulb moment.    

Am considering a second opinion and writing down questions, also pros and cons of chemo vs. no chemo.