Hi I just wondering if anyone can help. I have bone mets and been doing well for 20 months on various treatments. Latest ct with contrast and mri show unidentified diffuse area on liver. They can’t rule out cancer. Waiting on PET scan. Has anyone any experience with diffuse liver mets. I am scaring myself as from what i read they look difficult to treat. I feel very well and am generally very healthy. Can anyone with liver mets help and what might treatment options be
Hi mulligans -sorry to hear you are worrying about potential liver mets. Quite a few of us do have liver mets although there’s not an active Liver Mets thread being used at the moment. A lot of us post on the Bone Mets thread as we often have bone mets as well.
I was dx with bone mets in 2008 and then, after nearly 5 years of stability,was dx with liver mets as well. When dx I did ask about where my liver mets were and they were distributed around my liver,about 4 or 5 of them. Over time they have sometimes grown, when treatments haven’t been effective, or have stopped being effective, or have shrunk with some of them disappearing altogether. Systemic treatment such as chemo, hormonal andHerceptin (if you are HER2+) will treat the whole of the liver (as well as your bone mets). However by having diffuse mets (by that I’m assuming yours are distributed around the liver rather than in one place) it would mean that other treatment options such as surgery or RFA or radiotherapy would unlike to be used. Having said that if the systemic treatment gets rid of some of the mets and there’s only say one remaining it is possible that surgery, or the other targeted options, would be considered.
A few ladies on here have had targeted treatments , I was going to have RFA (radio frequency ablation) a while back but an MRI showed up some micro mets so it was decided I wouldn’t benefit from the procedure, but the majority of us are treated with systemic treatments.
I hope this helps but do co,e back with any more questions you might have, hopefully someone else can offer their experiences as well.
Nicky x
Hi. Mulligan, were you previously treated with docetaxel or paclitaxel
?
moijanxx
I have diffuse liver mets, forgot to mention that.
was just wondering what previous treatment you had had? There are lots of drugs they can try and some are well controlled.
Moijanxx
Thank you for replying. Today they confirmed diffuse liver mets from pet scan. They are ill defined defuse areas. I feel good and had no symptoms. Bone is stable. I was firing lots of questions about y90 and ablation but he said systemic treatment. Possibly weekly taxol. I originally did fec-t. So that would be dovetail. They are going to do liver biopsy and liver specialist will discuss options with him. He said just because people do other options doesn’t mean it’s right not in an arrogant way. He said they dont usually do ablation if there is disease anywhere else? Maybe I have too many tiny dots to target? Has anyone had success on weekly taxol? Are diffuse much worse that actual tumours. Couldnt be seen on mri or ct with contrast, just looked shadowy. Pet picked up activity
Can anyone give me advice on options or what i should be asking?
Morning Moijan
Can I ask a question how did find out what liver mets you have? Did not realise there are different
types of mets. Think my oncologist likes to keep me in the dark. Will ask next time I see her.
Really hope this new treatment works well for you.
Linda
Afternoon Moijan
Thank you for your quick response. I did ask back in September last year but she seemed to sort of beat around the bush. I did ask what size they are as well also if I could have a biopsy. Informed there was not point. I won’t be back until March but I will definitely will be asking again. I would rather know exactly what is happening rather than being kept in the dark.
Never seen a copy of any scan results or letters even though I do keep asking. I have probably asked before do you get a copies from your oncologist?
I hope taxol is not as bad as Taxetere which I had back in 2009 which was awful.
Linda
Hi ladies, am still in limbo about treatment for these diffuse liver mets. I am getting a ultrasound guided biopsy this week. They are sending tissue away for testing. Do you know what type of tests I will get? Other than the hormone receptors? I have health insurance so I know it is a private company. What will this tell me and does it really matter as they seem to follow a treatment protocol anyway? Just wondering if delay is worth it as I’m off treatmebt completely at the moment.