Metastatic liver cancer

Dan left a comment at Metastatic liver cancer mind games and is a metastatic liver cancer survivor for over 30 months now (that’s 2 and a half year).

That makes Dan our eldest secondary liver cancer survivor, followed by Trish (our first metastatic liver cancer survivor), who was diagnosed about 20 months ago.

Unfortunately, these are the only 2 metastatic liver cancer survivors so far. But with a cancer prognosis of 3 months, going 28 months over it like Dan does, Dan must be doing something good.

Please Dan, leave another comment if you feel like it, on how you are doing what you are doing! Like how did you gain weight, what are you eating and how do you exercise?

Just on a side-note: Lance Armstrong must be exercising a lot, so I wonder: does exercise help our body fight off cancer cells?

On another side-note: our father had lost so much weight that he couldn’t do much exercise because it would tire him out even more. And due to the state of his liver: a higher food intake just didn’t result in gaining weight anymore…

Dan’s metastatic liver cancer survivor story

Hi Trish,

 

Dan here. It has been 31 months since I learned of stage IV metastasized liver cancer from the colon. I had a resection in March 2006 and started chemo in April 2006. The doctors were kindly but expected only about two months survival. I had stints in my liver to open the bile ducts.

 

I have had the gamut of chemo drugs and the tumors did shrink a little. Irinotecan and Oxaliplatin were the most difficult side effects and loss of appetite fatigue causing medicines.

 

I am going for the record (living to be 100, 60 now). I have two grandchildren born this year six months apart. They need me around, and I love watching them!

 

Stay positive and exercise even if it is hard to do. I work three days a week as a consultant, sometimes the side effects force me to drag myself out the door. I was more or less expected to die last April 2008 having lost almost 100 pounds but I have recovered and gained back 50 of those pounds, about the right weight (even a little high).

 

I simply do not worry about the illness, though I hate being a burden to my wife when the worst bouts of fatigue make me helpless to get out of the chair for more than a short time, but those days come and go depending on the drug I am taking.

 

Well, I hope this is encouraging to you, at 20 months you have me to catch up to at 30!

 

Dan

Technorati Tags: cancer survivor, chemotherapy, irinotecan, Metastatic Liver Cancer, metastatic liver cancer survivor, oxaliplatin

Lisa’s father has colon cancer metastasized to liver. Lisa’s father is in pain and stays in bed a lot…

In this post we will explain how a colon cancer ’suddenly’ becomes a metastatic liver cancer.

We will feature Lisa’s comment at One caregiver is never enough! Patrick’s father has metastatic liver cancer in our next post. There you will learn that colon cancer chemotherapy isn’t a simple "1 treatment fits all" cure.

Colon cancer spreading to liver

Let’s explain in simple terms how and why a colon cancer spreads to the liver. Below we will also explain in more medical terms the above blue ‘colon cancer metastasized to liver’ picture.

Think of your organs as well enclosed countries like China once was well enclosed with the great wall. Meaning nobody can get in or out unless through the normal trade routes or by breaking a hole in the wall. Your colon, liver, pancreas, lungs are all such well enclosed countries.

Now you also know that you can travel from one country to another by highways or secondary roads. The highways and roads in our body are the blood vessels and the lymph canals.

Suppose you have a colon with all it’s normal citizens and one villain: a colon cancer. All other organs don’t have a clue and can’t be bothered what’s happening in the colon. It’s up to the internal security of the colon to deal with it’s villain.

But what happens when the colon can’t keep the villain - colon cancer- inside? What happens when your colon cancer breaks out of the colon and fled away on the roads of your blood vessels or lymph canals?

Think of it that your colon cancer now becomes an international terrorist on the loose. Your colon cancer can strike anywhere he can get using your blood vessels or lymph nodes…

• When your colon cancer hitches a hike on your blood vessels, sooner or later he will arrive in the liver, as the liver is supposed to be cleaning all your blood in your body.
   
• When your colon cancer hitches a hike on your lymph canals, sooner or later he needs to pass the "customs" that are positioned in the lymph nodes. That’s why you will hear that a cancer has "already traveled to the lymph nodes".

A so called stage 4 colon cancer is a colon cancer that has traveled outside the colon and has settled down already in another organ: usually
 

• the liver that cleans the blood or
   
• the lungs that add oxygen to the blood.

Metastatic liver cancer with unknown primary

Father was diagnosed with "metastatic liver cancer with unknown primary". This means that a cancer is found in his liver, but it is not a "local liver cancer". After the biopsy it is clear this cancer is not a liver cancer citizen.

Unfortunately the biopsy cannot explain where the cancer is coming from. Just like some people in Russia looks very Chinese but others look very Caucasian… you just cannot pinpoint exactly where they come from.

Not knowing where the cancer comes from makes you wonder: do we give father a breast cancer treatment, a lung cancer treatment (he had been smoking), a prostate cancer treatment or even a mesothelioma treatment (father did come in contact with asbestos when he was much younger…)?

Since we don’t know which one to choose, we have to give a chemotherapy that is successful for all the above treatments. In father’s case that meant such a poisonous chemotherapy cocktail that would have killed him faster than the cancer could…

Colon cancer metastasized to liver in medical terms

Cancer and tumors aren’t citizens, but cells, so the above story has to be done on a molecular level.

The process of colon cancer spreading to the liver metastasis is a dynamic process which requires the appropriate molecular machinery to allow a tumor cell to:

• proliferate in the colon (grow or increase rapidly),
   
• establish its own blood supply,
   
• invade into surrounding tissues,
   
• be released into the circulation,
   
• adhere to the blood vessels of the liver,
   
• invade into the liver (invasion),
   
• proliferate and
   
• acquire its own blood supply (angiogenesis).

This complex process requires that the tumor cell interact with the microenvironment of the liver such that the tumor cell can utilize the growth factors and blood vessels of the liver in order to grow.

As soon as that has happened, the medical world will call it a stage 4 colon cancer or since it reached the liver: a colon cancer metastasized to liver.

Technorati Tags: cancer metastasized, Colon Cancer, colon cancer metastasized to liver, Liver, Metastatic Liver Cancer, stage 4 colon cancer

Patrick just gave us the sad news in a comment on One caregiver is never enough! Patrick’s father has metastatic liver cancer.

Please leave your condolences, prayers and hugs for Patrick in a comment.

When asked about metastatic liver cancer prognosis, it seems that the patient will tell you when his time has come.

Our father passed away in his sleep the night after he told mother he would have done it all over with her and after he had seen all his children that same day being around to help mom.

Patrick’s father passed away after Patrick told his father:

I love you dad and I know you Love me

For those new to metastatic liver cancer: you need to know that there will be lots of moments where the cancer patient isn’t able anymore to verbalise, so that’s why "… and I know you love me…" is as important than saying "I love you dad".

I am sad to see another dad going because of metastatic liver cancer and tears are in my eyes. But I am happy to know that Patrick was there at the moment father wanted him to be there. Some moments in life are priceless, and this is one of them.

Feel free to drop by any time Patrick, just to say hi or to share your experience with others who will go the same road soon.

Our love, hugs and prayers are with you.

Patrick’s father passed away from metastatic liver cancer

Update -

 

My father passed away the 24th of September at around 3pm

 

I held his hand until the very end.

 

They say my father waited for me to arrive before he felt that he could leave me..

 

It was like its always been - Just me and him and it wasn’t until I said - I love you dad and I know you Love me that he finally took his last breath..

 

I know he’s in a better place now and he won’t have to suffer anymore..

 

I love you dad and will always remember you…

 

Patrick.

Technorati Tags: Cancer, condolences, Death, Metastatic Liver Cancer, Secondary liver cancer