Hi

I am 40 years of age and in Jan'17 I was diagnosed with rectal cancer. As you would expect the tumour was large as symptoms only showed at this point. A year of treatment including major surgery was considered very successful with lymph nodes untouched and clear margins achieved.

In Dec'18 i got very bad news in that it had spread to my liver (2cm in size). My bloods and a recent scan confirmed there is no recurrence to date and I have just finished 6 months of chemo.

My understanding is that the success rate of adjunctive chemo is pretty limited which is frustrating. Whilst I know there is more of a liklihood of this recurring, does anyone understand statistically the main characteristics which drive liklihood of recurrence. For example I am taking comfort from the fact that almost 3 years from original diaganoses that the only mestases to date is the one in the liver.

I dont see much point in overly thinking about recurrence and generally dont but inevitably it does cross my mind every so often. I have done alot of work on cleaning my diet and my general health and fitness is very good(this was my first illness!).

Liam