How come Trish, Dan, Jim’s son and Ray survived secondary liver cancer? We will present you the common factors in their metastatic liver cancer treatments and more important, the common factors in their lives.
- more people can find our metastatic liver cancer site
- more people can share their cancer stories and
- you learn more about how to treat and care for secondary liver cancer
How to survive cancer?
So what are Trish, Dan, Ray and Jim’s son doing right? Most likely they are doing everything right and that’s why you need to get all the help you can get :
- normal medical cancer treatments or the latest new cancer treatment
- loved ones that care
- professional care takers that care
- … in one word: you need an holistic cancer treatment approach meaning: you need to do everything right.
What do our secondary liver cancer survivors have in common?
- they all ended up at our website: meaning they are actively involved in looking for answers for themselves and generous in helping other walking the same road
- an upbeat attitude, a thankful attitude, being in good spirits (don’t get them wrong: they all felt devastated at the moment they heard the cancer diagnosis, Trish hated the doctor who gave her the cancer diagnosis for 6 months after he delivered her diagnosis…)
- cancer treatments: chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy and Jim’s son even gets alternative cancer treatments
- some have chemotherapy side effects, other’s don’t
- they don’t know everything but they know they can dream
- they exercise or at least know they should 🙂
- they are less than 50 years old
- they love what they are doing
Mind over matter
Secondary liver cancer survivor Trish summarizes it all when she answers survivor Dan:
I will get to your 31 months, no problem
That’s the spirit! …
People with a strong spiritual lifestyle, deeply religious people or said in simple words: people who believe in better things to come
will reach there goals more easily than skeptical people.
Unfortunately those who believe that a better life will come after this life wont focus on surviving the cancer in this life. When my father died of metastatic liver cancer, we all said he will now be in a better place without pain. What we did was making the journey to that better place as "good as possible".
The cancer survivor however has a different believe: he believes he is going to live, just like Trish says: I will get to your 31 months, no problem.
More mind over matter: placebo over medicine
You must have heard about the placebo effect.
A placebo is an inactive pill that has not medical treatment value. However in clinical trials patients taking placebos cure more easily than patients not taking any medicine. Sometimes the placebo even cures the disease better than the drug that it looks like.
Again there is only one explanation for this: mind over matter.
Like above, people getting cured with a placebo are again people who believe in better things to come. In this case the people trust the placebo and believe they will be cured after they take the placebo.
Holistic cancer treatment
What does holistic mean?
Holistic deals with the whole person, the whole physical body + spiritual and mental aspects.
It’s here where the fundamental problem of modern medicine cancer treatments exists.
Take father’s cancer diagnosis:
"Metastatic liver cancer with unknown primary"
I asked the oncologist what all that meant for father’s possible chemotherapy and the oncologist answered:
- if the primary cancer was a prostate cancer, I would suggest prostate cancer treatments
- if the primary cancer was a lung cancer, I would suggest a treatment for lung cancer
- if your father had a stage 4 colon cancer, I would love to treat him with Xeloda chemotherapy for colon cancer
- but…
- I don’t know what cancer your father has, so I can only do a chemotherapy so aggressive that it hopefully kills all the cancers without killing your father…
- so…
- I suggest to consider not giving any chemotherapy treatment
Modern medicine acts only on facts
My mother phoned me to tell my father had cancer at the exact moment me and my hubby where visiting the island of Kos in Greece.
Amongst others, Kos is the birthplace of Hippocrates, who is regarded as the father of modern medicine.
I was utterly disgusted to hear that Hippocrates had a hospital where he didn’t allow to treat pregnant women because… they had a 50% chance of dying when delivering in those days…
Meaning that our modern medicine is based on the doctor deciding who will get his treatment and who wont get it.
Would Hippocrates allow cancer patients into modern day hospitals?
It became all clear to me then:
our so called health care
focuses only on disease symptoms treatments
In other words:
- modern health care is inspired by Hippocrates: a person who didn’t feel like treating everybody
- modern health care decides who will get treatment (in the US, that’s the person who can pay for it, which again is NOT ALL people)
- modern healthcare is little interested in the whole person, it only looks at known diseases with treatments (father had an unknown primary cancer and didn’t get cancer treatment)
- modern health care gives little importance to disease prevention,
let alone…
- modern health care gives little importance to promote a lifestyle to make and keep a person as healthy as ever!
Conclusion
Modern health care is great when you fall and your arm is broken, they can fix it back quite well.
Modern health care falls short when it comes to preventing and treating cancer.
To survive secondary cancer
you need to do everything right!
Mind and matter
Jim summarizes it all:
I have to admit that I think the complimentary cancer treatment is helping with the chemotherapy.
I don’t know but something seems to be working.
I would say, in order to survive secondary liver cancer you need to:
- use modern medicine to your benefit: if a chemotherapy works, then undergo the treatment
- believe you are going to live it through
- use ALL the extra help you can get
A strong body with the right mind-set or the good spirit has always the best chance in surviving any bad situation, be is stranded on a rubber boat in the middle of the ocean, be it surviving secondary liver cancer.
To keep your physical body strong you need to:
- breath in fresh air
- eat healthy, organic food free from any poisons
- eliminate stress
It’s only now after reading Jim’s cancer story that I add "eliminate stress" to my metastatic liver cancer treatment and prevention list. Stress is a killer, is both related to our physical lifestyle and spirit AND: we are so used to stress that we forget stress is a killer.
To keep your spirit strong, you need to believe in what you want the rest of your life to look like. You need to believe ‘in living’ as firmly that you believe ‘the sun will rise tomorrow morning’.
Secondary liver cancer survival summarised
We are blessed to share the stories of 4 secondary liver cancer survivors and learn how they keep on living their lives. We thank Trish, Ray, Dan and Jim and wish they keep us updated to inspire others walking the same cancer road.
We would love you to add your story:
- so more people can find this metastatic liver cancer site and
- you get even more cancer stories to learn from.
To survive cancer you need all the help you get:
- all the help from people that surround you
- all the help when it comes to physical cancer treatments
- all you can help yourself to believe you will reach a stage you are completely healthy again
We love to inspire your quest in secondary liver survival with the extremely powerful words survivor Trish wrote:
I think in all the time I have been on chemotherapy treatment (20 months now), I have always believed that a cure will eventually be found.
And if I can stay strong and healthy enough till it’s found, I like to believe that I will be one of the first survivors of secondary metastatic liver cancer.
The best cancer treatment: having a healthy body
As long as there is no bullet proof cure for cancer, it all boils down to Darwin’s survival of the fittest. The best way to get ahead of cancer is:
- making sure you don’t get cancer
- making sure your body has all it can get to kill cancer cells
Cancer prevention boils down to eating and living healthy, keeping a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Easier said than done in a world were your job stresses you out, car smoke pollutes your air, food is filled with residu’s and water is polluted.
But if your life is dear to you, then you cannot use all the above as an excuse. Father had been smoking, had worked with asbestos and didn’t eat much vegetables nor fruit. Father died with metastatic liver cancer in a way I wouldn’t even wish my worst enemy.
When your life is dear to you, start doing all the things that our metastatic liver cancer survivors are doing:
1. Believe there is a cure : believe it like you believe the sun will rise tomorrow.
2. Use conventional medicine like chemotherapy, surgery and/or radiation therapy.
3. Add to that alternative cancer treatments to boost your immune system and overall health:
- the healthier you are: the better you can fight of diseases and
- the healthier you are: the better chemotherapy could work for you
4. Follow an holistic health approach: having a healthy spirit in a healthy body:
- focus on less stress,
- more relaxation,
- more exercise (Jim’s son is swimming twice a week for both exercise and relaxation),
- a healthy diet based on organic products
- make sure you have a hobby to pass your time doing something you love
5. Make sure you have money or good health insurance to buy what you need to better achieve all of the above.
6. Surround yourself with as many loving and helpful creatures you can find: according to pancreatic cancer patient Patrick Swayze:
"you gotta have a dog"
I am a secondary liver cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with splenic angiosarcoma 32 months ago. At the time of diagnosis, it had already metastasized to my liver. I have undergone two surgeries, removal of my spleen and removal of 60% of my liver. I have also had two different kinds of chemotherapy. I had taxol chemotherapy before the liver resection. It did a good job of shrinking the tumors. Unfortunately, several new tumors appeared in my liver since then. They are considering radiotherapy and/or more chemo. I have had several other issues arise from the cancer and the treatment including a blood clot and bleedin in my liver. But, I am determined to keep fighting and continue living. I have a wonderful sarcoma oncologist and I am very proactive in keeping up with the latest news, success stories and drug trials. I am always asking my doctor questions and even making treatment suggestions. The other keys to my survival are faith, eliminating stress, surrounding myself with good supportive friends, the love of my two dogs and the absolute conviction I will beat this somehow!
My father had a stroke Feb. 4, 2012. He a colon surgery August 2012. They told him in Sept. 2012 that is was cancer. He took Chemo pills and in Feb. 2013 they told him it was gone. After a cat scan in April 2013 they said the cancer was in the liver and was a Stage 3 and started agressive chemo every two weeks. He has had 2 treatments. This past Wednesday he started down hill. His main complaints are pain in his neck and shoulders and extreme hemorroidal paid because of the back and forth diarhea and constipation. We have talked to MD Anderson but are really unsure whether he should make the 600 mile trip at this stage of the game. He feels like he could tolerate the remaining chemo treatments (6 months altogether if it were not for this pain that cause him to only be comfortable lying down which is making him weaker every day. Tramadol makes it barible and he has morphine if it gets extremely bad. Should we just go ahead and give him the morphine all the time? Is this neck and shoulder pain cancer related or something that could be relieved. He is ready to quit chemo and we do not how to respond, encourage to continue or tell him it is okay to quit and maybe a little quality to the time he may have left. Please help!
Hi Kathy,
I am no doctor, and I am puzzled to hear that a stage 3 cancer is found in the liver, I would expect that to be classified as a stage 4. Whatever it is called, tramadol already points out that quality of life is seriously in the balance.
What I advice is to get more info from MD Anderson: what they can do and what not. I can imagine they will say that they have to see your father in person before making any comments, so I would suggest your dad’s GP or specialist have a word with MD Anderson to get an idea what to expect from them, to be able to make an informed decision. If there is still a cure, or if there isn’t a cure, that’s the first question you need to get answered.
Then it’s up to your father to decide what he wants and up to you guys to support him in making the best choice for himself.
Most likely this doesn’t answer your question Kathy, so feel free to ask more or share what you feel like sharing.
Hugs and prayers,
Kim
My mother has survived ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer. She was recently diagnosed with liver cancer and have undergone chemo and was told three weeks ago it was not working and that she now has six more tumors on her liver. No surgery and no other medication will work as she is allergic to many of them with some ingredient in them. She was told she had less than 6 months. But she is a string woman and believes she is going to overcome this. Well at least in front of me and my brother. She at once didnt have an appetite and started juicing her foods to keep them down. Her friend introduced her to this drink that she has been drinking for over a week and has had no immedite symptoms and she said she feels something being lifted in her that she never felt before. I think it is the devil that diseased her liver that is leaving and with GOD she will survive.
Hi Mita,
Thanks for sharing and please keep on updating us.
It will be great that another survivor keeps on sharing on our site.
Our most active survivor is Jim’s son, you can read his latest news at http://www.metastaticlivercancer.org/2009-09-16-cancer-treatment/jims-son-happy-1-year-metastatic-liver-cancer-anniversary/
Anything that improves the immune system will be positive in surviving cancer. According to Jim, a varied diet is part of this, as well as exercise. For the herbal part, mushrooms seems to be good as well.
We wish you well Mita and look forward for your updates!
Lots of hugs,
Kim
I would be so honoured to be in touch with other survivors. I know they say its very difficult to survive this. But I am a survivor, its hard, but I’m going to do it, and with the help of others and this website, we can help each other to survive.
Hi, I came across with website whilst looking for ways to help me survive secondary breast cancer in the bones and now in the liver.
I’ve been on chemo since Jan 2010. I May this year my oncologist changed my chemo as a CT scan showed a negative responce. I decided from then, that although I would continue to have further chemo of a differant kind, I was also going to try alternative medicine: herbal.I have changed my outlook of things and have become more positive and confident that I will survive this and will not let the cancer kill me, I am going to die of old age.I will see my girls get married and have children and see them get married. I will not give in to this horrible disease. I surround myself with positive thoughts, family and friends. I have now taken early retirement too and eliminated that stress from my life. Although I’m still on chemo, I feel well and energetic. I will survive.
If you can’t bake a cake, you can’t tell others there is no way they can bake a cake, can you? However that’s what doctors who cannot cure secondary liver cancer say… “I can’t cure it, so nobody can.” As narrow minded as it gets.
Dear Linsey,
Hugs to you and we know what happens with your mind when you hear your loved one has secondary liver cancer, add to that with unknown primary: exactly what my father had.
At that time, doctors said that there is no cure. Now when you take away a person’s hope, sure the person won’t cure. And who of the few secondary liver cancer survivors got this “there is no hope” news? All of them!
Statistics are against us, but we are human beings, not mathematical figures.
Most doctors don’t know any survivor, so they don’t know where to start. Now you do!
All of our survivors do have chemotherapy but add to that first and foremost the believe that they can beat it.
The best advice is not trying this or that and putting your hopes in one miracle cure. If that cure existed, we would all know and be using it.
The key is doing everything right, and your best outcome is to find a doctor who is treating a secondary liver cancer survivor. Again: one doctor won’t be the miracle doctor, but if you find a team of people that want to go the extra mile and have positive experiences in treating cancer, you are much better of than listening to your “of the mill doctor that doesn’t know there are survivors”.
Apart from believing, you need to do everything to boost the immun system and the overal healt: both that are under severe attack due to th side effects of chemotherapy.
Wish I could point you to a doctor that is trating secondary liver cancer survivors, maybe one day Jim or the others can share their doctors with us.
My mother-in-law was diagnosed with secondary liver cancer of unknown primary orgiin about 6 weeks ago. She was quite symptomatic at the time so the oncologist suggested starting aggressive chemo quickly. The metastatic cancer of the liver is quite extensive, leaving no option for resection. Her liver function tests have been good, but now her blood counts are starting to drop. She recieved second opinion at Mayo who also told her the same devastating news…her and my father-in-law are losing hope!!!! MY BIGGEST FEAR! I desperately would like them to seek a naturopathic Doctor, however when I present this I need it to seem not too overwhelming but most importantly hopeful! We live in Wisconsin, however travel is an option. Looking for a suggestion of an Alternative Therapy Cancer Center…Also, is it recommended to continue this aggressive Chemo along with alternative methods? I read throughout my research that often individuals do not have conventional treatment often live longer than those who are treated with conventional treatment such as chemo? As you can tell my mind is running in circles!
Dear Reyna,
Your doctors should be able to explain you what kind of infection your friend has.
A side effect of chemotherapy is that it reduces a person’s immune system, which make it easier for infections to surface.
Again, ask the doctor, or ask your friend’s GP to ask the doctors.
My best friend has been diagnose with cancer matastTIC to liver . She ‘s had her first quemo las week but now she is having an infeccion on her legs why is this , does anyboby know why.
A friend of mine has just recently been diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer originating in the bile duct. Does anyone have any suggestions for alternative treatments he has just started chemo and has reacted well with no sickness, but his calcium levels keep raising. Is there anything to do for this?
Thank you for this site!!
Hi, Robert! Hope your father is reacting well to a new treatment. My own father has also adenocarcinoma in the liver with unknown primary source and will be starting chemo soon. In the meantime, he runs high fever every day and when it drops, he keeps sweating for long hours. (I am talking about getting rid of A LOT OF sweat. He cannot sleep because of this, and his whole nervous system is a mess. Has anyone suffered or heard of this before? Are there any natural remedies to help out?
Hi Robert,
I just now read your request. I’am a stage 4 liver cancer patient. My cancer was in the eye and traveled to the liver as of August 2008. Currently I’am undergoing a Trial with the chemo directly injected to 1/2 the liver. I had 2 sessions and my cancer has stopped growing and multiplying…
My father is suffering from secondary liver cancer from unknown primary. Doctors have given up on him, but we haven’t. Chemo, they say has not worked. Please help us if you can!