Metastatic liver cancer

Pammy wrote a month ago about her sister being diagnosed with an aggressive secondary liver cancer at Sad secondary liver cancer news, please give your support!

She then left a message which I will quote below asking "is anybody reading this?"…

Please if you are reading this: leave a comment!

If you have no clue what to say, just write "yes I am reading this"

Pammy’s quote

Yes there must be a God apparently he made my beautiful little sister and her little boy’s now he’s gonna take her back so i’m no big fan right now!

Ann has had her 3rd chemo 5 hours worth it has knocked her off her feet she has swelled quite a lot but her has not been increased yet but her pain is a bit worse and reality has kicked in she is very emotional , she has more chemo 12th dec then scan 17th so some good news right on Christmas wouldn’t go a miss x

Does anyone actually read this?

I feel as though i’m on my own so useless , helpless , worthless I know i’m not the only 1 to go through this I’m struggling emotionally any pointers ,

pammy x

Dear Pammy

In difficult moments like these, you still quote that you know that others are going through this as well… Meaning that you are a caring person, and that’s the worth you need to empower.

Also don’t "downsize" your story by comparing to others…

The feelings of useless, helpless, worthless are very recognizable, add to that "anger". We had a lot of "anger" that could burst out for no reason towards somebody that apparently didn’t do anything wrong.

You need to do what you feel is right, embrace life and know that life will end sooner or later with everybody. It’s just that we are so focused on "later"…

In the case of father, I "just asked him" what he wanted me to do now that I was there having traveled from far.

"Nothing" he said….

It is then up to you to have a look around and see what more you can do than "nothing", because all extra you can do is a bonus!

During those days: I invented the "that’s a good plan" sentence… Be it a "short term good plan" like buying a desert father , be it a "long term good plan" like organizing palliative care takers…

In the case of your sister: the "short term good plans’ are the daily things she enjoys in life, the "long term good plan" would be an assurance that her 2 boys will be taken care for.

Pammy: please keep in touch and try to find more people that had cancer or have a loved one with cancer: they have a much more realistic approach towards all what’s happening than the people without the experience.

Like father’s doctor said: it’s in the end quite easy for me to tell you your father has cancer, because I live here between my 4 white walls and I go home in the evening. You guys have the difficult task of making decisions and doing things you most likely never ever spend enough thinking about, let alone have a solution for…

Please give pammy a hug and leave a comment!

Technorati Tags: Liver Cancer | Liver Cancer Symptoms | Liver Cancer Treatment | Metastatic Liver Cancer | Symptoms of liver cancer | Liver Cancer prognosis | Stage 4 liver cancer | Laser treatment for liver cancer | Cancer inoperable liver | Cancer of the liver | Secondary liver cancer | Alternative liver cancer treatment | Adenocarcinoma | lung Cancer | Cancer Story

Do you tell everything to your partner? Or are you like me: when you have a bad day but your partner shows up all happy, do you join in his happiness? Or do you spoil the mood with the bad things that happened in your day?

You would say: "gosh, it all depends actually"…

That’s why I would be quite interested in "What kind of man would lie to his own wife about having cancer?". The author of this question will be one of the guests of the free reading series organized tomorrow November 28 (free of course!) at :

Happy Ending Bar
302 Broome Street between Forsyth and Eldridge, 212-334-9676
Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 pm sharply!

Did father lie about his cancer?

After father passed away due to metastatic liver cancer, mom recalled and told us of one night about 2 years before father died father had the "something is on my mind" expression. When mom asked him what was wrong, father told her: "I cannot tell you". On which mother asked: "since when can’t you tell me things anymore"…

My old neighbour: did he lie about his cancer?

My old neighbour nor his wife were that close to me to answer that question. I never saw his wife acting any differently than just the last few days when my neighbour was in hospital in his last days of fighting lung cancer.

3 months before my neighbour died of lung cancer, he "suddenly" stopped smoking. Around that time he taught his wife how to use the grass mower "just in case I wouldn’t be around one day"…

Who do you tell you have cancer and who should tell you that you have cancer? The answers look easy, but one day when you are confronted with cancer, there are choices to be made you never thought they could be that difficult…

What had my neighbour and father in common?

Father died of metastatic liver cancer.

My neighbour died of lung cancer.

Both were very cheerful people, making sure they could help out anybody they knew and they couldn’t be bothered to trouble others with their problems. They didn’t seem to have any enemies, loved by everybody and no problem was big enough to stop them.

Technorati Tags: Liver Cancer | Liver Cancer Symptoms | Liver Cancer Treatment | Metastatic Liver Cancer | Symptoms of liver cancer | Liver Cancer prognosis | Stage 4 liver cancer | Laser treatment for liver cancer | Cancer inoperable liver | Cancer of the liver | Secondary liver cancer | Alternative liver cancer treatment | Adenocarcinoma | lung Cancer

Listening to the radio, I heard that Singapore just developed a vaccine for treating colon cancer: the most likely cause of father’s metastatic cancer of unknown primary.

This is not just "chemotherapy in a pill", like Xeloda is, but it’s a real cancer treatment! Basically the medicine customises the cancer patient’s own special immune cells! These immune cells will become a cocktail of antigens trying to kill the cancer cells.

Just think about it: why does a tiny country like Singapore succeeds in finding a vaccine where mighty rich US can’t? It has nothing to do with "can’t", it’s just having the priorities right. Why shoot up your money in Iraq if you could be helping your own US citizens???

I googled up the news, so you can just read it below:

SINGAPORE : Singapore doctors have developed a new cancer vaccine that’s said to be more than twice as effective as those that are currently available.

The new vaccine has been used to treat colon cancer, which is one of the most common cancers today. And doctors said the vaccine is likely to work on other cancers on the head, neck, lung and skin as well.

64-year-old Madam Phua Ah Moey is one of 20 end-stage colon cancer patients who were on the cancer vaccine’s Phase II trial.

She was diagnosed with colon cancer 10 years ago. She approached the National Cancer Centre Singapore three years ago when her she had a relapse.

Patients at the advance stage of cancer usually don’t survive beyond 12 months.

Madam Phua underwent chemotherapy but she did not take to the treatment well.

Last March, when her doctor asked if she would like to try out a new cancer vaccine that doctors in Singapore have developed, she readily agreed as her cancer was not responding to other treatment options.

Over five months, Madam Phua was injected fortnightly with the new cancer vaccine.

A year later, her tumour shrank by more than half. Her cancer remained well controlled 18 months on, after her last injection.

Madam Phua said: "When I was undergoing chemotherapy, I felt terrible. I kept vomiting at home. Later Dr Toh, (my oncologist at National Cancer Centre Singapore), asked me to take injections.

"I had 10 injections (once every two weeks). Now, I feel more energetic (and I can walk better)."

Doctors said the new vaccine has fewer side effects. This is because it works by customising the patient’s own special immune cells (Dendritic Cells) into a cocktail of antigens that are more powerful and efficient in killing cancer cells.

The vaccine is the result of the combined expertise of Singapore cancer specialists and Danish DanDrit Biotech - a company mostly owned by Singaporeans.

"This is a unique study because we take the blood cells from the patient and in a series of processes, we grow the cells in the lab and give it back to the patient in 7 days’ time. These cells will activate the body’s immune system to fight the cancer," said Dr Toh Han Chong, Principal Investigator, Laboratory of Cell Therapy and Cancer Vaccine, Division of Medical Sciences. He is a senior consultant in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Centre Singapore.

"We saw 7 patients out of 20 with disease control, and one of whom had a pretty good shrinkage of the cancer with no side effects."

On average, the new cancer vaccine has a good response rate of 35%. This is almost 3 times more effective than the 11.2% of the other cancer vaccines currently available.

The vaccine is now ready for Phase 3 of the trial where its efficacy will be tested on over 300 colon cancer patients.

For Singapore, the study is significant as it shows that Singapore has the capability to develop and commercialise a drug.

"This particular vaccine has been shown to be effective on head and neck cancers, lung cancers, and also for a particular kind of skin cancer," said Professor Soo Khee Chee, Director of the National Cancer Centre Singapore. He is also a senior consultant in Surgical Oncology.

Having proved its efficacy in treating advance-stage cancers, Professor Soo believes the new vaccine should also work in treating early stages of cancer.

In Singapore, 1,000 people are diagnosed with colon cancer every year and 600 of them are treated at the National Cancer Centre.

Dr Toh and his team will be publishing their findings in a few months’ time. - CNA /ls