Stage 3 or stage 4??

I was first staged 3b, but when the liver mets showed, the surgeon felt the seeds were there before/during the chemo, so I consider myself a 4, but the rules say I'm a 3b with metastasis. Either way it's scary. My Pet scan showed affected nodes under my armpits and neck, so know false positives happen. The other thing is they kept calling them cysts in my liver, while needle biopsies showed no cancer, but their growth over time changed the language from cysts to lesions. I tell you all this so your prepared either way it goes. They can't always be certain, or give you the certainty we'd all prefer.....................................Dave

abita said:

Do you know what caused the

Do you know what caused the cysts? And if they looked like cancer on CT Scan or MRI. And my frantic questioning is because they found 4 spots on my post chemo scan, which they say is most likely cancer recurrence, and it is super silly but I have been praying that the pet ct scan I am getting next week will say not cancer, so looking for any hope. 

They can be caused by many things.  I had my liver resection July 2017 and I still have one or two spots that show up on my scans that my oncologist says are pockets of fluid.  Weren't there before the surgery, but have been there ever since.  

mountainhiker

We had mixed messages, leaning toward the 3. But we used an experimental immunochemo approach aimed at any "distant" lymph nodes to stop any spread and then an extra surgery to take them out too.  The surgery distant lymph para aortic nodes required an aggressive oncological surgeon who could pinch hit for a thoracic surgeon too.  I believe inguinal lymph node dissection is not so difficult,  rather they say its futile.  We disagree on distant LN - get the big stuff and use nicer  (non-standard) adjuncts permanently.  e.g. celecoxib, cimetidine and/or aspirin and heavy duty nutraaceuticals. 

We used extra blood tests too. e.g. CA199 and LDH.  CA199 helps initially decide whether cimetidine is useful, and can monitor adjust daily immunochemo effectiveness separately from CEA's information. Ditto LDH.  Heavy cyclic chemo disrupts CA199 and LDH after a while and for  some months after cyclical chemo ends.

abita said:

Do you know what caused the

Do you know what caused the cysts? And if they looked like cancer on CT Scan or MRI. And my frantic questioning is because they found 4 spots on my post chemo scan, which they say is most likely cancer recurrence, and it is super silly but I have been praying that the pet ct scan I am getting next week will say not cancer, so looking for any hope. 

The average body has like 12 cysts in it, I just assumed they were there naturally, until the terms were changed, lesion for cyst. They may have gone from watching benign, stable things to focusing on growing mets..................................Dave

DTerrie said:

Colon cancer stage 3c

i had a colonoscopy less than two weeks ago and resection of colon and removal of lymph nodes 8 days ago,  Of 34 nodes removed 24 had cancer.  Biopsies show stage 3c   So six months oh chemo in about 3 weeks so I can heal from surgery first.  

 

I'm sorry to hear of your recent diagnosis and surgery and that you had to find us.  Would you please make a new post on the board to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your story.  Glad that you are here as we can help you get through this. 

Kim

My husband as stage 4 rectal cancer with met to the liver. It has been a year since he was diagnosed. He is having a heck of a hard time with chemo and is in the hospital now with dehydration and diahrhea. It scares me so much. Is there anyone here with this diagnosis? How lond has it been since diagnosis with stage for met to liver? I also was diagnosed the same time as my husband. I have Myeloma which there is not cure for but there is treatment.

I am new to the site.

darstark said:

New

My husband as stage 4 rectal cancer with met to the liver. It has been a year since he was diagnosed. He is having a heck of a hard time with chemo and is in the hospital now with dehydration and diahrhea. It scares me so much. Is there anyone here with this diagnosis? How lond has it been since diagnosis with stage for met to liver? I also was diagnosed the same time as my husband. I have Myeloma which there is not cure for but there is treatment.

I am new to the site.

And Kim is right, please start your own thread, that way folks can answer your question without running wild on the original posters thread. 

Here is the link to the forum page where you can post   https://csn.cancer.org/forum/128

And just a quick answer.  I am Four Years five months out from liver surgery, with no evidence of disease, or NED as we like to call it. So there is LOTS of hope for your hubby. 

Tru