My aunt has colon cancer that was detected kind of late and it has spread to the liver. The liver can regenerate, so I just want to know why dont they cut out the bad part of the liver and let the rest regenerate? That might not be a smart thing to do since the cancerous cells have probably grown around the veins and bile duct tubes.. but i was just wondering. Do surgeons do this, or have they thought about doing it?? (I hate doctors sometimes, think they kind of wait around for you to die and refuse to do anything else). Her stomach has swollen alot! Is this common?
Cancer - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
O.K... I see your point & I am sorry to hear about your aunt. Now I'm going to shoot straight & level with you. Once u have cancer which has spread to the liver, there is little hope. It's called metastasis. (or mets for short). The liver can regenerate, but only when young & healthy, even then, it's a hard task. When you have mets in the liver, it has spread through your system from what is known as a primary cancer (your aunts bowel tumor/cancer). Mets in the liver is a secondary (tumor/cancer). I'm really sorry, but In my trade we have a saying. "once it hits your liver, you're fucked".
2 :
A person can live very well only with half of his liver. So not removing the tumor from the liver is the problem. But tumor cells are already in the blood and, if they get to the liver, they probably are in many other organs (lymph nodes for instance). We don't see tumor cells without a microscope unless they are a few billions, so nobody can take off all the malignant cells. Cutting off a part of the liver is a very long and complicated intervention and people with cancer rarely survive it. So, only a few are candidates for a hepatectomy. But it's done and surgeons do it quite often. You are saying her stomach is swollen. If you mean she has a big belly now, a distended abdomen that's called ascities, accumulation of fluid in the abdomen. It's common in abdominal cancers and it means the disease is very advanced. I'm sorry to tell you all that. Good luck, Cristiana More about cancer on my blog: http://newcancerguide.com
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