rookie71
02-27-2007, 12:47 AM
Hi,
My 77 year old grandmother was diagnosed with stage III liver cancer that had spread from her gallbladder. She was diagnosed a few months ago after she had surgery to remove her gallbaldder and cancer was found. She had a seperate operation to remove a golfball sized tumor from her liver, but a second tumor was found and the surgeon could only remove a portion of it. From everything we have been told (which is very minimal at this point, my grandmother still has an official visit with the oncologist coming) the tumor is fairly large and it is in an area with a lot of blood vessels, which I assume to be a bad thing. The radiologist stated that he would not recommend radiation because he did not believe he could cure the cancer and he was worried about her quality of life. Evidently the oncologist, speaking briefly with my mother, indicated they also did not believe they could "cure" the cancer. Right now she is in rehab after reacting very badly to the surgery to remove the tumor (she went into renal failure about a week after the surgery, came down with several infections, and is still suffering from a build up of fluid). My question is, what can we expect? The prognosis sounds very bad at this point. Will chemotherapy, which is being recommended, make a difference or will it just put her through a lot of unnecessary agony? How much time is normal in circumstances like this? What can be expected, in terms of what she may go through? Any info would be greatly appreciated as we are just beginning to learn about all of this and it has come as quite a shock. Thank you all.
My 77 year old grandmother was diagnosed with stage III liver cancer that had spread from her gallbladder. She was diagnosed a few months ago after she had surgery to remove her gallbaldder and cancer was found. She had a seperate operation to remove a golfball sized tumor from her liver, but a second tumor was found and the surgeon could only remove a portion of it. From everything we have been told (which is very minimal at this point, my grandmother still has an official visit with the oncologist coming) the tumor is fairly large and it is in an area with a lot of blood vessels, which I assume to be a bad thing. The radiologist stated that he would not recommend radiation because he did not believe he could cure the cancer and he was worried about her quality of life. Evidently the oncologist, speaking briefly with my mother, indicated they also did not believe they could "cure" the cancer. Right now she is in rehab after reacting very badly to the surgery to remove the tumor (she went into renal failure about a week after the surgery, came down with several infections, and is still suffering from a build up of fluid). My question is, what can we expect? The prognosis sounds very bad at this point. Will chemotherapy, which is being recommended, make a difference or will it just put her through a lot of unnecessary agony? How much time is normal in circumstances like this? What can be expected, in terms of what she may go through? Any info would be greatly appreciated as we are just beginning to learn about all of this and it has come as quite a shock. Thank you all.