Loving son looking for something other than chemo

After a year of losing weight and being told she was simply “depressed”, one doctor finally suggested a cat scan for my mother and a tumor consuming 40% of her liver was found. Remarkably we were told it was nothing to worry about! Fortunately a young man on her “team” of doctors pushed for a biopsy and our lives changed. We immediately found an oncological team through a friend, because we wanted to distance ourselves from those who misdiagnosed the situation, allowing her to remain ill for so long and lose nearly a 3rd of her body weight. In Oct. of 2013 we visited Lankennau Medical Center outside of Philly. Dr. Carp resected half of her liver. Recovery was bumpy at first, but after just 3 months her appetite was back and she gained 20 lbs. Chemo was not recommended so we carried on. We were told that the cancer was gone! Life was good. Then in Nov. 2014 they found another tumor. Much smaller this time, on the non-resected portion. Oblation therapy was administered and again she was “cancer free”. Since it returned we decided to seek another opinion so we headed to Sloan Kettering. Initially Dr. Kingham pushed for a hepatic arterial infusion pump. This treatment apparently is very effect in localizing chemo on colon cancer as well as pancreatic cancer… I believe. However, much to my mother’s relief, the team agreed with the prognosis at lankenau. No chemo was needed. Still I wasn’t satisfied so I urged us to get a 3rd opinion at Johns Hopkins. Just prior to our visit mom’s latest scan from Lankenau was suspect enough to recommend a biopsy. But, just a few days later Dr. Weiss at Johns Hopkins determined that no biopsy was needed. It was cancer again. Two weeks later my mother underwent a much smaller surgery to remove the new tumor. Recovery went really well for 2 weeks. Then the wound became infected. The bile was leaking. We’ve tried pumps and the wet dry packing.. 7 weeks later its still leaking. Now both Dr. Rasheed and Dr. Weiss recommend chemo. However, not with an open wound. Frustrated we headed back to Dr. Carp outside of philly for another opinion on the wound. He was absolutely fantastic during her first surgery. He sent us to a gastroenterologist to place a stint in and drain the bile out the sphincter. Thats where we’ll be heading on Thurs. Oh, we also visited Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunswick and met with Dr. Moss. She was not a fan of chemo, at least not right now. Some doctors say chemo some don’t. Some say surgery is still possible if it returns in the right area. As I sure you all are aware, non of the statistics look good. I personally feel that chemo would be so hard on her for such a little chance of success. My mother has been through so much these past 2 years. On top of this she’s had the shingles, a mild case of melanoma (unrelated to liver cancer we were told), she was bitten by a dog requiring stitches,, and lost her mother. As of now her and my father want to do chemo. My main focus right now is to gain a better understanding of immunotherapy, as well as any doctors who administer it. I realized that there is probably a lot on this site about it (I already found a few things), but I thought I’d share a very abridged version my story first and offer any insight I can from my experience. Please don’t hesitate to ask me anything that may help guide you. Thanks you all for having me here and I wish you all the very best in your battles.