Pancreatic cancer and liver lesions

Nunu123
Nunu123 Member Posts: 11
edited March 2014 in Rare and Other Cancers #1
My husband has finished his chemo and rads treatment for pancreatic cancer. We waited four weeks to do the PET scan and it showed up that the tumour in the pancreas reacted to the treatment. So, it should be operable. The problem is that there are now lesions on my husbands liver showing nup on the PET scan.
I am told by the radiographer that an operation is now not an option because the lesions are not in one part of the liver but in all of it, he went on to suggest that we meet the oncologist to disscuss and we must look at chemotheraphy if offered it.
I am afraid because I saw the scan and I am not sure that all the lesions could be cancer? But there are so many.

Has anyone had this? What was the course of treatment offered and were you a candidate for surgery after this treatment?

Thanks.
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Comments

  • Nunu123
    Nunu123 Member Posts: 11
    #2
    Anyone?

    Anyone?
  • Aezoro
    Aezoro Member Posts: 2
    #3
    Nunu123 said:

    Anyone?

    Anyone?

    Surgery
    I would recommend that you speak to your oncologist. My wife had surgery (whipple) and now is going to go for chemo and radiation. So that would not apply. I would recommend that you check out the better centers in the country. Check out US News and World Report ranking, that is how we chose our hospital.
  • mr steve
    mr steve Member Posts: 285
    #4
    Please talk to your Onc
    If surgery is out due to the tumors in the liver you might be able to have a TACE done(its like a heart cathertheration but they shoot the chemo stright into the liver)
  • campbell587
    campbell587 Member Posts: 1
    #5
    pancreatic and liver
    I am a 51 yr old female. From the beginning of my diagnosis,I have been considered stage 4 unresectable mestastic pancreatic cancer. Surgery was not option because of 2 lesions on my liver. nor is radiation because the cancer is not in one localized area. Only option is to control the spreading. Its been a year now and I am on my 3rd line of treatment. Gemzar and Tarvia was my 1st line of treatment and worked very well for 9 months, until I built a immune to it. My scan SUV went back up. Then I used xeloda and oxaplatin. Only for 3 mos- I was not responding well to that, I am now back on Gemzar with taxatere, well see how this goes. Good luck to you
  • stephanie649
    stephanie649 Member Posts: 1
    #6
    pancreatic cancer and liver lesions
    This same thing happened to my mother. At the time the only option offered to my mother was more chemo or see if Vanderbilt had any clinical trials. She decided to go with more chemo till she couldn't take the side effects anymore. She has been in relatively good health for over 6 mths. Her health is now declining, but she chose the no treatment route. They do have treatment now where the chemo is actually given directly to the liver thru the main vein. I apologize for not knowing the name of that, but in simple terms thats what they do. I don't know what the criteria is to be candidate for this option. I have heard that there has been very good success with this. I'm not a dr, but as a daughter of a pancreatic cancer patient this disease is very tough, because there hasn't been many advances in treating this type of cancer. The dr's seem to not know what to do either. Don't give up hope.
  • LEE1953
    LEE1953 Member Posts: 2
    #7
    campbell587 said:

    pancreatic and liver
    I am a 51 yr old female. From the beginning of my diagnosis,I have been considered stage 4 unresectable mestastic pancreatic cancer. Surgery was not option because of 2 lesions on my liver. nor is radiation because the cancer is not in one localized area. Only option is to control the spreading. Its been a year now and I am on my 3rd line of treatment. Gemzar and Tarvia was my 1st line of treatment and worked very well for 9 months, until I built a immune to it. My scan SUV went back up. Then I used xeloda and oxaplatin. Only for 3 mos- I was not responding well to that, I am now back on Gemzar with taxatere, well see how this goes. Good luck to you

    pancreatic ca w/ 2 liver lesions
    abbreviated background: 62 year old male---CT showed pancreatic tumor 8 months ago. Received Gemzar 3 months (5 treatments) then surgery (Whipple). Margins were clear but 6 out of 26 lymph nodes were positive and surgeon found a lesion on liver that did not show up on CT before surgery had atypical cells. Plan was to start chemo in 6 weeks post op. CT before chemo showed another liver lesion. Started Gemzar, Cisplatin once every 2 weeks for 4 sessions. In addition, took 100 mg of Tarceva every day. Oncologist changed chemo agents now because he said CT & lab work indicated previous agents had plateaued, which I expect means the cancer has become resistant to the other chemo drugs. Started Oxaloplatin and Xeloda this week and suppose to continue for 9 weeks before another CT. Nurse suggested not eating anything cold for 5 days. Could someone give me an idea of what to expect with this regime and how long the sensitivity (if that is what it is) lasts to cold food or beverages?
  • LEE1953
    LEE1953 Member Posts: 2
    #8
    mr steve said:

    Please talk to your Onc
    If surgery is out due to the tumors in the liver you might be able to have a TACE done(its like a heart cathertheration but they shoot the chemo stright into the liver)

    TACE
    Is this done in addition to or instead of chemo through a central line? Also, do you know what institutions are doing this - wonder how to bring it up to the oncologist?
  • mr steve
    mr steve Member Posts: 285
    #9
    LEE1953 said:

    TACE
    Is this done in addition to or instead of chemo through a central line? Also, do you know what institutions are doing this - wonder how to bring it up to the oncologist?

    LEE1953
    I don't know if it can be used with Chemo treatments too. We had it done at The James at OSU. I would just ask your Onc if they have heard of this type of treatment. No it was done just like a heart cath the entry point was in the groin
  • Nunu123
    Nunu123 Member Posts: 11
    #10
    stephanie649 said:

    pancreatic cancer and liver lesions
    This same thing happened to my mother. At the time the only option offered to my mother was more chemo or see if Vanderbilt had any clinical trials. She decided to go with more chemo till she couldn't take the side effects anymore. She has been in relatively good health for over 6 mths. Her health is now declining, but she chose the no treatment route. They do have treatment now where the chemo is actually given directly to the liver thru the main vein. I apologize for not knowing the name of that, but in simple terms thats what they do. I don't know what the criteria is to be candidate for this option. I have heard that there has been very good success with this. I'm not a dr, but as a daughter of a pancreatic cancer patient this disease is very tough, because there hasn't been many advances in treating this type of cancer. The dr's seem to not know what to do either. Don't give up hope.

    Thank you for your replies
    I am exploring options and hope for the best, the doctors in Europe are pretty much rubbish, England and Malta are the worst place to be, Malta is asctually rubbish.

    The doctors do not help when they say you have excessive liver mets which means there are more than normal.
  • angbertolino
    angbertolino Member Posts: 4
    #11
    Hi, my partner was diagnosed
    Hi, my partner was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last september. She did the chemo and radiation and neither worked. The doctor was unable to do a whipple so I went searching for other options. Turns out there is a doctor in Tennessee named Dr. Stephen Cantrell and he is having an 80% success rate with curing inoperable stage III and stage IV pancreatic cancer as well as some other cancers. My partner and I are using this treatment now and it has barely any side effects aside from mild fatigue and muscle aches.
  • colinclark
    colinclark Member Posts: 1
    #12
    pancreatic and liver cancer
    hi i was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and liver cancer in march 2008 they operated removing the tail of the pancreas my spleen and part of the liver on the 8th may 08 so far all scans have been negative but i was so lucky the hospital i was going to did all the scans ct and mri and nothing showed up i was accussed of being a drug seeking person so i paid to see an oncoligist at a differant hospital he did an endiscopic ultrsound whith came back showing tumour markers i was booked for an op in 2 weeks time they then gave me a ct scan which was clear so they booked me for an mri saying if it came back clear they would cancell the op i didnt go for the mri when asked by the surgon after the op why i didnt go i said that if it was clear you would have cancelled the op and now it would be to late as they told me that another 2 weeks and it was to late to operate so i urge anyone with pains in there tummy to push and get second and third opions its to late if you wait
  • mjd107
    mjd107 Member Posts: 10
    #13
    campbell587 said:

    pancreatic and liver
    I am a 51 yr old female. From the beginning of my diagnosis,I have been considered stage 4 unresectable mestastic pancreatic cancer. Surgery was not option because of 2 lesions on my liver. nor is radiation because the cancer is not in one localized area. Only option is to control the spreading. Its been a year now and I am on my 3rd line of treatment. Gemzar and Tarvia was my 1st line of treatment and worked very well for 9 months, until I built a immune to it. My scan SUV went back up. Then I used xeloda and oxaplatin. Only for 3 mos- I was not responding well to that, I am now back on Gemzar with taxatere, well see how this goes. Good luck to you

    I am a 56 yr old male with a very similar situation.
    Have you considered alternative treatments such as naturally occuring plant extracts?

    I have researched on-line about things such as graviola, ellagic acid, zeolite, triphala,
    and curcumin.

    I still have not found out if oxaplatin & xeloda are working for me.

    In two more days I will have my platelet count checked again. If it is high enough, I will
    have my fourth chemo oxaplatin treatment on Thursday June 3.

    It is tough to keep up hope. I would like to keep in touch with you. Best Wishes.
  • unicorn1209
    unicorn1209 Member Posts: 6
    #14
    campbell587 said:

    pancreatic and liver
    I am a 51 yr old female. From the beginning of my diagnosis,I have been considered stage 4 unresectable mestastic pancreatic cancer. Surgery was not option because of 2 lesions on my liver. nor is radiation because the cancer is not in one localized area. Only option is to control the spreading. Its been a year now and I am on my 3rd line of treatment. Gemzar and Tarvia was my 1st line of treatment and worked very well for 9 months, until I built a immune to it. My scan SUV went back up. Then I used xeloda and oxaplatin. Only for 3 mos- I was not responding well to that, I am now back on Gemzar with taxatere, well see how this goes. Good luck to you

    How are you doing?
    My partner has been diagnosed just last week with metastatic pancreatic cancer with metastases to the liver... no radiation or surgery - She starts chemo this Friday with Gemzar.. Hearing it's been a year for you gives me a little more hope..... I posted a topic on another board.
  • mjd107
    mjd107 Member Posts: 10
    #15
    LEE1953 said:

    pancreatic ca w/ 2 liver lesions
    abbreviated background: 62 year old male---CT showed pancreatic tumor 8 months ago. Received Gemzar 3 months (5 treatments) then surgery (Whipple). Margins were clear but 6 out of 26 lymph nodes were positive and surgeon found a lesion on liver that did not show up on CT before surgery had atypical cells. Plan was to start chemo in 6 weeks post op. CT before chemo showed another liver lesion. Started Gemzar, Cisplatin once every 2 weeks for 4 sessions. In addition, took 100 mg of Tarceva every day. Oncologist changed chemo agents now because he said CT & lab work indicated previous agents had plateaued, which I expect means the cancer has become resistant to the other chemo drugs. Started Oxaloplatin and Xeloda this week and suppose to continue for 9 weeks before another CT. Nurse suggested not eating anything cold for 5 days. Could someone give me an idea of what to expect with this regime and how long the sensitivity (if that is what it is) lasts to cold food or beverages?

    I am 56, male, & have had the same diagnosis & treatments.
    The sensitivity to cold only affected me with the first dose of oxalipatin. I guess that
    it varies from one person to another. After 4 doses of oxalipatin and xeloda, I had a CAT
    scan which showed that those drugs had no effect on my cancer. The oncologist now has me taking docetaxel which I know was what they used to give stage IV pancreatic cancer patients way before Gemzar came along. The docetaxel is making me very fatigued, more so
    than the other drugs. I really don't believe that my oncologist is going to be able to cure me. I would suggest that you look at some ( non chemo ) alternative cancer treatments. Unless you can get into a clinical trial, I recommend looking at the following web sites http://cancerfightingstrategies.com or
    http://cancer-prevention.net

    If you have any questions about these web sites, feel free to send me a personal email.

    I have been using some of these supplements since January.
  • mjd107
    mjd107 Member Posts: 10
    #16
    angbertolino said:

    Hi, my partner was diagnosed
    Hi, my partner was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last september. She did the chemo and radiation and neither worked. The doctor was unable to do a whipple so I went searching for other options. Turns out there is a doctor in Tennessee named Dr. Stephen Cantrell and he is having an 80% success rate with curing inoperable stage III and stage IV pancreatic cancer as well as some other cancers. My partner and I are using this treatment now and it has barely any side effects aside from mild fatigue and muscle aches.

    Dr. Stephen Cantrell
    Dear angbertolino: I would like to learn more about Dr. Cantrell's treatment program.
  • merce
    merce Member Posts: 1
    #17
    unicorn1209 said:

    How are you doing?
    My partner has been diagnosed just last week with metastatic pancreatic cancer with metastases to the liver... no radiation or surgery - She starts chemo this Friday with Gemzar.. Hearing it's been a year for you gives me a little more hope..... I posted a topic on another board.

    Gemzar success
    Dear Unicorn

    Hope chemo is going well for your partner. How is she feeling and responding to it, or is it too early to say?

    My husband was diagnosed a month ago with stage IV pancreatic cancer with liver met - inoperable (although debatable) but he hasn't been able to start chemo because of general physical weakness. Has anyone heard of bedbound patients or those with fever receiving chemo anyway?

    Any relevant comments, much appreciated.
    Thanks and keep up the hope!
  • baxterjankirby
    baxterjankirby Member Posts: 1
    #18
    angbertolino said:

    Hi, my partner was diagnosed
    Hi, my partner was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last september. She did the chemo and radiation and neither worked. The doctor was unable to do a whipple so I went searching for other options. Turns out there is a doctor in Tennessee named Dr. Stephen Cantrell and he is having an 80% success rate with curing inoperable stage III and stage IV pancreatic cancer as well as some other cancers. My partner and I are using this treatment now and it has barely any side effects aside from mild fatigue and muscle aches.

    Dr Stephen Cantrell

    what info can you give me on this Doctor? I was diagnosed with a 3 cm tumor in Feb., had 4 cycles of Xeloda and GTX which shrunk the tumor. In spite of several very small liver lesions( which when tested prior to actual surgery came back negative), they did perform the whipple surgery. Now I am again getting chemo and there are more lesions on my liver.
    The doctors still don't know if they are cancerous. Don't know if Dr Cantrell's treatment is for me but would like to look into it. Any help would be appreciated.
  • joe123
    joe123 Member Posts: 3
    #19
    angbertolino said:

    Hi, my partner was diagnosed
    Hi, my partner was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last september. She did the chemo and radiation and neither worked. The doctor was unable to do a whipple so I went searching for other options. Turns out there is a doctor in Tennessee named Dr. Stephen Cantrell and he is having an 80% success rate with curing inoperable stage III and stage IV pancreatic cancer as well as some other cancers. My partner and I are using this treatment now and it has barely any side effects aside from mild fatigue and muscle aches.

    did the treatments work for you?
    Hello, Would love to know if the treatments worked for your partner?
  • joe123
    joe123 Member Posts: 3
    #20
    mjd107 said:

    Dr. Stephen Cantrell
    Dear angbertolino: I would like to learn more about Dr. Cantrell's treatment program.

    dr. cantrell
    Did you ever find anything else out?
  • SF_2_EP
    SF_2_EP Member Posts: 3
    #21
    colinclark said:

    pancreatic and liver cancer
    hi i was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and liver cancer in march 2008 they operated removing the tail of the pancreas my spleen and part of the liver on the 8th may 08 so far all scans have been negative but i was so lucky the hospital i was going to did all the scans ct and mri and nothing showed up i was accussed of being a drug seeking person so i paid to see an oncoligist at a differant hospital he did an endiscopic ultrsound whith came back showing tumour markers i was booked for an op in 2 weeks time they then gave me a ct scan which was clear so they booked me for an mri saying if it came back clear they would cancell the op i didnt go for the mri when asked by the surgon after the op why i didnt go i said that if it was clear you would have cancelled the op and now it would be to late as they told me that another 2 weeks and it was to late to operate so i urge anyone with pains in there tummy to push and get second and third opions its to late if you wait

    First they found a mass on my liver
    I know that for most the pancreatic discussions are dormant, maybe one or two people talking to cyber space, sadly all postings are old, posted by other individuals that maybe are no longer with us.I just want to say that I feel that there are doctors out there that really dont know much about this disease seriously they say things like, Islet Cell Tumors are slow growing and that they rarely give off any symtoms since they hardly release any hormones into the blood flow.I had three different onocologist tell me three different findings about my pancreatic cancer, then to add insult to injury the Social security Administration has a Compasionate list of diseases that qualify for disability and pancreatic cancer is on the list.Then they have another page called the compasionate qualifications where they dont explain any knowledge or have any evidence how they determine how serious pancreatic cancer is or how they break it down to determine the seriousness of the disease.I dont know what kind of information the American Cancer Society has kept them up dated with but it all ends with the dicision of someone called the Adjudicator,gladly for our sake this person dont work in the OR but seems he has the title as the hang man, so we must drop to our knees and plead for mercy.

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