My Mum has developed Liver cancer Secondaries

markstoneman · New User Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 2

Hi Everyone,

I just found these forums about 5min ago while trying to look for information on Liver Cancer.

My Mum was first diagnosed with Breast cancer probably about 17 years ago, I was quite young at the time so didnt really know too much about what was going on at the time. All i know is that after all the treatement they did she was given the all clear... this was after i think 5 years of monitoring her. About 6 months after being given the all clear she was re-diagnosed with breast Cancer a second time.

Since she has been re-diagnosed ( about 8-9 years ago now ) the cancer has slowly spread through her body. It has gone into the bones in her hip and spine, she has had several courses of Chemothereapy and Radiothereapy, Hormone treatement and just about everything else. Several times in the last few years she has had to go into hospital due to the growths in her spine pressing on the nerve which have left her pretty immobile at times, she can now walk around but requires a crutch if she is going to be on her feet for more than a short while.

During her last dose of Chemo ( just finished last thursday ) she was being hit quite hard by it and was needing blood transfusions to pick her up afterwards.

She told me last night that the doctors have now found that the cancer has spread into her liver. She said that they cant operate on it, but that they think they can "contain" it with Chemotherapy. The problem there being that she cannot have another course of Chemo for a while now untill her body recoveres.

What i was wondering is basically if anyone has encounterd a similar situation, and bacially what the "general" life expectancy is with liver cancer. I have read this morning that it "averages" at 6 months, but im not sure how up to date this information is. As a family we are not terribly great at talking about these things and i dont really want to ask her directly if the doctors have given her a timeframe.

Kind regards

Mark

Vee Smith · Moderator Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 817 Location: UK

It sounds a difficult situation for you all. Try posting as well on

http://www.bcmets.org/

There is a massive body of knowledge amongst these women who all have metastatic cancer.

cjago · Regular Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 42

Well, I've had liver mets for a lot longer than 6 months, but my cancer is not as widespread generally as your mother's. You need to be researching breast cancer metastases to the liver, not liver cancer; they are not the same thing. I have had radiofrequency ablation for mine; see for example
http://www.clevelandclinic.org/general/rfa/overview.html
She might be able to have this sooner than more chemo, but I don't think they will normally consider it if you have multiple tumours.
_________________
adenocarcinoma of the breast, now widely metastatic (stomach, liver, pelvis, pancreas, bones, skin)
survived 11 years so far

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