sorry to read your news,its not the best thing to hear. What comes next is the what, where and how.
What type is it and will it respond to chemo ect.
Where is it and is it positioned where surgery is possible
How and what form will your treatment take place
Expect scans ,biopsies and tests to establish the facts in order for your surgical team to determine treatment,which will take a few weeks, but will seem like forever. From there on things should progress fairly quickly.Since each individual cancer situation is different it would not be possible to prejudge the actuallity, except to say that you will need to allow for a longer journey rather than a pop to the shops
The liver is remarkable in the fact that it has the ability to heal and expand to replace any lost function.l had 60% removed ten years ago and with inside a year it was like it had never been. The two takeaways for me was that the bowel op was easy but the recovery and lasting effects were harder, the liver op was short lived brutal but the recovery was a doddle with no after effects
Try to keep your stress down, and not worry about the things that you do not know or can do nothing to influence, all you can bring to this is the best you, mentally and physically, and do not underestimate the importance of that. Your surgical team will bring the expertise,do not undermine that by not presenting a calm balanced patient with their focus on the destination called recovery,
Hi ,I have about 11 lechons on my liver so i am told ,they are difficult to get to so they can not remove them surgically. The cancer started in the bio ducked. I was started on Durvalumab {imfinzi} and Gemcitabine, Cisplatin. I had two but I blow up like a balloon as a result of this my legs started leaking water. I also was very short of breath after having a scan I was then diagnosed with blood clots on the heart which then I was given blood thinners which I am still taking, I then had to have a drain put in because this fluid or whatever was in me was not going anywhere. They drained 6ltr out of me.
So now because of these the consultant has advised me not to have the immunotherapy because the side effects are too much although my family seem to think that I should give it another try. So I am confused, I know that the immunotherapy is supposed to be the one chemo that does work at slowing the cancer down. Now I am on gemcitabine and carboplatin which I have had two and have had no side effects so far. But if this is working I am not sure until I have a scan. I have also now got a catheter in and have done since staring on the immunotherapy because they thought that perhaps I was retainer urine, so after 5 months of being diagnosed I still do not know for sure if any of this has helped or is that cancer just keeping on growing.
l am sorry to read you are battling Bile Duct/Billary cancer that has spread to your liver.This is a very different scenario than bowel cancer metastasis spread into the liver and much more problemmatical.
From what you write it would appear that you commenced a treatment of the go to immunotherapy regime Imfinzi but unfortunately was unable to tolerate it and were overcome by its side effects, the fluid retention being Ascites l presume.
These side effects have obviously been so severe in your case that your consultant feels that your body cannot tolerate continued treatment with this drug, since it would kill rather than cure and as such has not reccomended this option for further treatment. Unfortunately it can affect some people so severely that it can have this effect upon them.Their can sometimes be a very fine margin between salvation or destruction.
Your consultant has dropped the Dirvalumab and Cisplatin from your therapy and inserted Carboplatin in the quest to find an alternative combination that you can tolerate and will also havea desired effect
It seems that you are coping with your new alternative regime which is good news and now face the wait to see if this is slowing or stopping any further spread. l am thinking that it will take a number of courses to have taken place before an effect can be seen at a future scan.
From what you describe you are going through it badly in the search for control, and having to wait longer to see if there are positive results is a further stress and weight upon you, uncertainty is such a wearing thing, but this is the nature of the position you find yourself in
If my own experience is anything to go by l would expect you will need to undergo a few more treatment courses before any definitive conclusions can be drawn
l wish you the strength and continued determination to keep going forward and the good fortune to see a break in the dark storm clouds that will undoubtably be clouding your mind at this present moment in time,
