My mother-in-law 73 - excellent health - takes no medications recently had a cough & 2 months later is diagnosed w/inoperable cancer because the dr. said she has no many nodules on her lung & liver. She will have the biopsy of the liver in a few days. She has lost 10lbs., has no appetite & no energy.

What type of cancer can this be & so quick? Christmas she was fine - teaches line dancing, very active - what could this be? Any help would be appreciated - all 7 kids are just devastated.

There is no definate answer until the biopsy. It could be lung or liver cancer. They both can spread from one to the other. Liver cancer is the much rarer of the two accounting for less then 1 percent of new cancer cases every year. Both do not have good prognosis but many new treatments are available these days. They will most likely start her on a combination of chemotherapy, possibly radiation. Does she smoke? Best of luck

Thanks for replying - she has never smoked - although - her husband did & her mother - her mother did die of lung cancer

This is kind of what happened to my dad; excepy his was lung cancer that had sprrad to the brain and liver and lymphnodes. I'd say its lung cancer - it can be caused by alot of different things, especially if it's been in the family once before.

She got the results of her biopsy - the dr. said it's strange but it came back as follicular thryoid cancer but her other symptoms didn't lend to that - they ran another Cat scan, more blood work & a Pet scan & will have a review board look at the results & she has to wait another week to meet w/the oncologist.

MIL will have her thyroid removed Wed. - no other cancer in body from the PETscan - doctors are all stunned & said that this is a very rare case. After the thyroid is removed - then they will try & break up the tumor on liver so the the radioactive dye can petetrate & hopefully kill the rest -if it doesn't, then chemo.

I'm just so afraid she'll never handle all this - she is so frail & weak - has anyone every seen anybody recover from cancer who is so frail, weak, no appetite, no energy & she hasn't even started any type of treatment - lost 35 lbs. in 3 months. HELP Please