Hello,
First time posting on the forum. I was diagnosed last March with liver mets and over the year have read a number of the liver posts which have been extremely helpful and comforting.
I am currently looking into Ablation and Liver Resection as my Oncologist says that this might be an option for me in the future. Does anyone have any recent experience of either route that they would be willing to share with me?
Many thanks
Hi bythebeach,
Welcome to the Forum but I am sorry that you find yourself here.
Our users are very supportive and I am sure they will be along soon to share their experiences.
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Best wishes,
Lizzy
Hiya by the beach
Sorry you havent had any replies and I haven’t got any info either but please search the threads and see if there are any older postings that might give you some help.
We are very supportive here so please join in and stay with us.
Hi bythebeach
Sorry youve not had many replies but this an area of treatment that doesnt seem to be offered to many SBC ladies with liver mets, therefore there’s not many ladies who could reply and add their experiences. As has been said it does depend on how the mets are distributed, tiny ones wouldnt be treated in this way and I guess if you have too many larger ones they may also not be treated this way. Maybe you can ask your local team if its something they are able to carry out and therefore advise on or if not ask for a second opinion at one of the major Cancer centres such as The Marsedn or The Christie (or others) depending on where you live? Good luck though with your ongoing treatment.
Nicky x
Hello Bythebeach,
Sorry I’ve only just seen this. Ive had both ablation and resection. Ablation is much quicker to get over, less invasive, but potentially less of a permanent solution. I had it twice, and it recurred twice. I then had a resection at the end of 2012 and have been clear so far since then. There are guidelines about the number and size of lesions, as well as where else you have secondaries etc, for ablation.
When I went for a resection the surgeon was quite confident that he would take a bigger margin and that it would be more successful than ablation. I went to the Royal Free in London. I was off work for several months (6 I think) as its major surgery, and I spent the first 24 hours in intensive care. The ablation needed a brief general anaesthetic and I was up and about soon after, and back at work a few days later. That was done at UCLH.
I hope this is helpful. They first found I had liver secondaries in 2007, and my liver is now NED (it’s other bits of me that are the focus just now), so take heart. I hope your current treatment is really successful
jx
Hi bythebeach
I had a liver resection in December 2015 at the QE in Birmingham. Was offered as I had one liver met that remained stable for over 12 months, and no other mets. In hospital for 6 days, 1st night in intensive care. Off work for 12 weeks, now fully recovered. Scans since have been clear and I’m doing well. Feel free to ask anything about it.
Hi I’ve just read your post and saw you have had a liver resection.Im due for one on may 25th.I haven’t seen or read anything good about it and the pain etc I’m panicking now .xxx
Hello,
I have been diagnosed this week with secondary to the liver and whilst I have been given a treatment plan I am keen to explore all options.
it might be eorth you looking at a Prof Peter Lodge who works privately at aspire but also al St James, Leeds it seems that he is very forward thinking and has carried out surgeries on people who had been told they were in operable.
I have also been advised to research low dose naltrexone which may be beneficial.
Hi red riding hood and Nicky,
nicky Im glad to hear you seem to be recovering well from your surgery. I had liver ablation in Dec 2012 and nothing has returned in my liver yet. Red riding hood I just wanted to say hi and reassure you that ablation was very simple and trouble free for me. I had it 3 times, I think, before I had the resection. Each time it killed off the tumour and nothing returned for at least a year. I know they hadn’t managed to zap it all as it was very close to a vein.
im now 11 years since I was diagnosed with liver secondaries, so I hope that gives people some hope and reassurance. It has now spread to my peritoneum and probably ovaries, so I’ve been on Kadcyla for two and a half years now.
Best wishes to you all and hang in there
Jx
Hi Mermaid,We are so similar I had to check I hadn’t written your post lol.I had my primary in 1997 and now have liver mets as secondary.My name is Deb .Ive had a liver resection and I’m on Exemestane too .cxxx
Hi again ladies,
yes, they give the impression that all these tests and scans are conclusive, but actually there’s a lot of variables and interpretation involved. It’s a bit depressing. A friend of mine with bc was told she had brain mets, she had just begun to get her head around that information, then in the letter to her GP they said they weren’t sure if it was mets at all!
Anyway, Mo, yes I do remember there were a lot of hoops to jump through before my first ablation, and that led to a lot of delays and waiting for different specialists to meet and discuss. Once I was in the system though it was easier to go back for more.
one thing to bear in mind is that our docs are mostly medical oncologists, which means they only specialise in chemo and other drug treatments. They may not be aware of other options such as surgery, RFA, HIPEC etc. So it’s worth doing your own research to see what else is available. That’s where sites like this are so helpful.
Well I hope those that are waiting for news don’t have to wait too long, and that the diagnoses are clear and decisions are explained clearly to you. You have every right to ask as many questions as you need to, it is part of their clinical responsibility to gain your informed consent, which means you have to be satisfied that you understand what is being proposed. Don’t ever feel a nuisance.
all the best
Jx
Oh dear Mo, sorry to hear you’re still waiting for an answer! This was exactly my experience all those years ago. They’d say there’s a meeting on such & such a day and you will have a response after that, then the meeting would come and go and they wouldn’t have discussed my case, or some key person wasn’t there, or the meeting didn’t happen. Then it would be another week or fortnight till you got your hopes up again. I’m so sorry, the waiting is pants. Just try to hold your nerve and keep busy with other stuff if you can, to make the time pass. Rubbish advice but it’s all I’ve got ?
hope you’re having a good weekend and doing some nice things xxx
Sorry Debs, I meant Mo who still has hers to come - blame chemo brain!
Jx
Hi Nicky that’s great news regarding your scan results. Pleased you had a good holiday.
Linda
Dear Nicky, thinking about you and your family xx
Hi Nicky
So sorry to read you have lost your dad unexpectedly. It is awful when you loose someone close to you suddenly.
Sending love and support to you and your family.
Linda
Dear Nicky,
im so sorry to hear about your Dad. Such a difficult thing to have to deal with on top of everything else. Sending you hugs and hoping you find comfort in the love and closeness of your family
Jacksy xx
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Hi Girls,
Just a quick update. My liver biopsy confirmed it is metastases and the receptor ER positive 8/8 and PR positive 8/8. This is interesting as my bone mets are Er positive 8/8 but PR negative proving that the receptors can change. So I am continuing on Faslodex which I am finding such an easy treatment and am hoping to respond well. Having come off Exemestane I didn’t realise how much that made my bones ache, I always presumed it was the bone mets aching.
Hope you are all doing ok
xxx
Sorry to read that your dad has died Nicky. I can’t imagine the difficulties of sorting out everything when he died abroad. It’s a dreadful thing to have to do anyway. Xx
I don’t post on this thread but do follow as I’d love to be able to have the option of ablation or resection in the future. I’ve got everything crossed that the palbociclib is working for me. Stable would be fantastic but a reduction would be even better and hopefully open up more options.