Update on Liver Biopsy

Hey Tina,

George and I will be on the same chemo (CPT-11 aka Irinatocan ). He is starting next week, I don't start until February (right there, you can see how this all affects us different ways because our situations are unique). My wait until Feb is for me to have a break from the Xeloda I was on and my spots/tumours in my lungs are not growing quickly but they are growing, hence the need for some kind of interference that will work. So George and I will be able to compare war wounds/stories... give him the heads up, since he will be a good 6-8 weeks ahead of me, I may have questions of him when I get closer to starting my own CPT-11.

As for your concerns about the 3-4 months vs doing it earlier and more often to keep on top of things. I think your oncologist is very correct in his way of thinking. George will be starting the chemo next week and you do have to give it time to show any kind of improvement. If you had another scan in say two months and the results were "there's no sign of improvement or worsening... it's the same as it was back in Dec", then you wouldn't be ahead of the game. So you'd wait another 2 months, take another scan and now they could say, that there's been an XX% improvement since Dec, but very little in the past 2 months... meanwhile George has had to go through 2 CAT scans to get the same news you'd get if you waited the 4 months. And, as much as we are all in a hurry to get our results and get them often... keep in mind that CAT scans, wonderful tools that they are, are giving the patient more radiation. I have read (sorry, I don't remember where so I don't have a link/reference site) that a CAT scan gives out 444 TIMES the radiation that a regular X-Ray gives a patient. And we all know how doctors try to keep xrays to a minimum because the radiation is accumulative over our lifetimes. Of course, when one has cancer, we weight the risks vs the benefits and the benefits of having CAT scans can be life-saving. And if we live for 20-30 years, then sure... we are probably going to have to deal with cancers caused by the radiation from all the CAT scans we have had... but hey, I'm willing to face that if I get another 20-30 years out of the deal On the other hand, knowing this... then lets not go overboard on requesting scans that will expose us to that much more radiation if we aren't going to benefit by having more scans and more often

I see my Stage IV cancer as a "chronic disease" and as much as a pain as it can be (all these damn appts.) I have a good quality life whether I'm on or off treatment, and if it means I'm homebound for a couple of days each cycle, well so be it... there's plenty to keep me occupied at home too. I'd rather live with a "chronic disease" than not live at all... so no need to get super depressed. We've got it better than a lot of others out there in the world, so our job is to make it so we can live comfortably with what we've been handed.

And that's where this board can come in so helpful!! We all get it here... we understand, we can empathize, and we can share war stories

So hang in there... we can do this all together!

Cheryl