Metastatic liver cancer

When Kistan2 asked in her Liver Cancer story about alternative liver cancer treatments, we immediately had to think about hepatocellular chemoembolization.

• chemo-embolization are 2 treatments in 1:
• a chemotherapy through the artery feeding the liver cancer +
• a closing of the above artery feeding the liver cancer
  

Immediately, because we went through the same quest when father was diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer. We searched the Internet for any cure, we found a few "promising treatments", but :

• they were extremely expensive, a long waiting list and not at all nearby
• they were promising because you tend to hold on believing in miracles
• they were all quite useless in our case because the doctors couldn’t find father’s primary cancer. In other words: even if we replaced the liver with a new one, the primary cancer sooner or later would attack it again (although nobody knows when, so you might say: if I can prolong my life with 5 extra years, why not…. Which is true, but the medical world doesn’t operate like you think…)
• one doctor even told us to stop reading the Internet and spend as much quality time as possible with father…

What is Hepatocellular Chemoembolization?

Chemoembolization is an innovative treatment for cancers of the liver doing 2 things at the same time:

1. block the tumors’ blood supply and at the same time
2. deposit a concentrated form of chemotherapy at the site of the cancer.

A catheter (a thin flexible, spaghetti sized tube) is placed through a tiny hole in the skin and directed through the pathways of the body’s arteries straight into the portion of the liver where the cancer is located.

Chemotherapy and particles which block the blood supply are then infused through this catheter.

Advantages of hepatocellular chemoembolization

Fist and foremost: it is a chemotherapy, so it’s not a guaranteed cure.

It is also used to reduce the size of the tumor to decrease the pain due to the growing liver pushing against the other organs.

The main advantage is that the chemotherapy doesn’t go into the entire bloodstream, so a higher dose can be used without the patient suffering from terrible side-effects if this dose was given with a normal chemo-therapy.

How does that work exactly you say? Well: the liver gets his blood:

• 75% from the so called portal vein
• 25% from the so called hepatic artery

Tumors in the liver typically get most of their blood supply from the hepatic artery. So:

• drugs or embolic material injected into the hepatic artery kill or greatly inhibit the tumor and
• spare most of the healthy liver tissue that is fed via the portal vein.

In father’s metastatic liver cancer case unfortunately: his liver didn’t have 1 big tumor, but looked like a raisin bread filled with little tumors. Trying hepatocellular chemoembolization would have been a daunting task…

Technorati Tags: chemo embolization, chemotherapy, Hepatocellular Chemoembolization, liver cancer story, liver cancer treatments

Terese for Pammy and the rest of us
(pammy’s liver cancer story please give your hugs)

I am reading this. My husband,45, has Angiosarcoma of the liver.
He never smoked, took drugs or worked in a factory that emitted chemicals. We have two children,13 and 9, and we just found out that the chemo that they are using is not working so they have switched him to a new drug. He just came home from the hospital and doesn’t have enough energy to make it up the stairs. I can’t stand to see him in this state and I fear he doesn’t have much time left. We just found out on Oct 31 that he has a liver mass so it has only been 8 weeks and already I can see how cancer causes such pain, pain that no person should have to endure. Keep us in your prayers.

Terese 

Dear Terese,

All our prayers and hugs for you and your children.

Father most of the time didn’t have the energy to walk up the stairs either, so we put a hospital bed in the living room where he slept the last months of his life. Yet sometimes "father was gone" : just managed to walk the stairs on his own and sleep in his good old bed…

Pain: we opted for NO PAIN : meaning giving the pain medication every so many hours and progressively adding more medication when needed.

Hugs and prayers.

What is Angiosarcoma

A type of cancer that begins in the lining of blood vessels. This type of tumor tends to be aggressive, recur locally, and spread widely. It can originate anywhere in the body but is well known to arise in skin, soft tissue, liver, breast, spleen, bone, lung and heart.

Father’s metastatic liver cancer was called adenocarcinoma… all in all words without a real meaning for us, especially when you hear the word cancer and you don’t hear the word cure…

Technorati Tags: chemicals, chemo, Drugs, liver cancer story, liver mass, oct 31, pammy, prayers, stairs, terese

From Cathy to Pammy
(request-from-pammy)

Pammy,

My younger sister was also recently diagnosed with 4th stage metastaic liver cancer with the primary being her esophagus. She too has a 5 year old son and is a single mother. Due to lack of insurance she has fallen through the cracks of the healthcare system. She is in excruciating pain and has been unable to fill the $2600 prescription for her morphine. If they don’t begin the chemo soon I fear she will not make it another week or two. I feel for you, I work in the medical field and trust me, a little knowledge is not necessarily a good thing. My sister is terrified and so am I. Anything you have to tell me as far as what happens now or any advise I’m open.

Dear Cathy,

When father had metastatic liver cancer, we opted that no pain was a priority
(no matter what, money included…).

Please contact Colin who has chronic pain and blogs about it. You can find his blog in our Lord of Pain post.