Lisa’s father’s colon cancer spread to his liver

Lisa’s father has had over 130 colon cancer chemotherapy and/or liver cancer treatments in 5 years and still is not in remission.

Lisa passes her condolences to Patrick at One caregiver is never enough! Patrick’s father has metastatic liver cancer and feels her father’s body is deteriorating to fast for comfort.

 

Please add your support or share your metastatic liver cancer story with Lisa and Patrick and all of us.

 

Go directly to Lisa’s liver cancer story or go directly to how colon cancer spreads to the liver.

 

At first sight Lisa’s 5 years cancer story seems similar like father’s 6 months condensed metastatic liver cancer story. But it isn’t: Lisa’s father had 130 chemotherapy sessions, our father had none.

 

Lisa’s father has problems not only with his liver, but also with his spleen and gallbladder. Father never had these extra complications, which to me feel like side-effects to the chemotherapy. Unfortunately chemotherapy is not a clear cut cure for cancer…

 

Lisa’s father is much younger than our father, so he had the option to undergo chemotherapy and prologue his life significantly.

 

But life is much more than just adding days, and especially the days in bed with pain are far different than "quality of life".

 

Thanks for sharing Lisa, and lots of hugs and prayers to you and your family.

 

Lisa’s father’s colon cancer spread to his liver

 

Patrick, I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your father. I unfortunately will be facing the same fate as you soon.

 

My Father was 55 when he learned he had Colon cancer and upon surgical removal of the tumor and part of his intestine the surgeons noticed that it had already metastasized to his liver.

 

We have been fighting his Colon Cancer in the Liver since then and though he has lived longer than anyone thought he would, it has been very hard to see him deteriorate each and every day.

 

We are at the point that he needs his gall bladder out as it developed 2 types of Staph infections inside of it due to Chemo, however we cannot have surgery as he has such bad portal hypertension that he will bleed to death.

 

His Spleen is not working and is also suffering and much larger than it should be, we also cannot have that removed.

 

We also found out that it has spread to the lymph nodes of the lining of the stomach.

 

Needless to say he has had over 130 chemo treatments, multiple surgeries and still no remission.

 

Last May we were told he won’t make 2 years. He has become immune to every chemo he has taken and there is nothing left for him to try and he still can’t have surgery.

 

He recently turned 60 and many days he stays in bed the entire day due to the pain he is in. There is only so much more he can handle.

 

I truly am so sorry to hear of his passing, may your memories always keep him close to your heart.

 

With deepest sympathy, Lisa

 

 

How does colon cancer spread to the liver

 

If our explanation about colon cancer metastized to liver didn’t get through to you the first time…

 

(trust me, it took a lot of explanations before I could grasp what was going on and why there wasn’t a clear cut metastatic liver cancer treatment…),

 

… then the picture above should clear things up how colon cancer starts and how it can evolve to a stage 4 colon cancer.

 

Cancer is a disease of cells.

 

Cancer cells are "not normal" and don’t respect your. In the case of metastatic liver cancer, these cancerous cells do not perform the job of the liver. They destroy the normal liver cells and/or push them away (that’s why your liver gets swollen).

 

Before colon cancer: normal cells

 

In the first drawing labeled normal, each cell:

 

• is about the same size
   
• is organized in a orderly fashion, and
   
• is on top of a basement membrane.

 

A basement membrane separates these cells from other types of cells and from cells of different organs of the body.

 

Some cells start growing faster than others

 

In the second drawing labeled single hyperproliferative cell, the reddish cell:

 

• develops mutations and 
   
• begins to grow slightly faster than the cells around it.

 

Hyperproliferative means that the cell grows faster than normal cells.

 

Cells accumulate to a benign tumor

 

In the third drawing labeled small adenoma, the hyperproliferative cells:

 

• accumulate and
   
• a small benign tumor called an adenoma develops.

 

During a colonoscopy, the doctor is looking for such adenomas. If an adenoma is removed at this stage, the patient will be fine and a cancer will not develop from this particular group of cells.

 

Note two things about the adenoma:

 

1. the cells are starting to pile up on one another and they are not organized like normal cells, but
    
2. the cells are still on one side the basement membrane.

 

Colon Cancer

 

In the fourth drawing labeled large adenoma plus carcinoma:

 

• the adenoma was allowed to remain in a patient for many years
   
• a cancerous tumor – called carcinoma – will form inside of the adenoma
   
• the cells in this carcinoma break through the basement membrane and will spread inside the colon,
   
• eventually these cells will leave the colon to spread to other organs like the liver.

 

In the fourth drawing, a tumor cell can be seen in the lower right hand corner breaking into a small blood vessel (pink segmented circle) to spread or metastasize. In case of Lisa’s father, his colon cancer spread to his liver.