Mother has lymph node recurrence after whipple

Hi to everyone,

My name is Alex and my mother was diagnosed with distalCC/gallbladder in Jan 2010 (16 months ago.). She had the a resection and whipple in Jan 10 and May 2010 and did great. Unfortunately last week after an MRI and endoscopic biopsy), it was confirmed there is a 2cm tumor on a lymph node under her liver. Her organs all looked clean in the MRI, but with a lymph node involved we are assumed to be at stage IV and there is likely systemic spread, albeit early.

We’re obviously quite scared, and if you believe what you read for good reason. She is going to receive her oncology care at UCSF moving forward with Dr. Ko.

I think I’ll be an active member of this community now for the rest of my life, and would welcome any thoughts/ideas/opinions/advice as we start this journey.

My greatest fear is of course with systemic metastasis, that chemo doesn’t help much, so any advice there especially is so greatly appreciated.

Thanks again to all the courageous people out there willing to share their stories…

Alex in LA