New Diagnosed
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Welcome Sally
I can’t answer your question but I just wanted wish you well and say your post made me smile. I don’t mean to be insensitive as I hate that anyone has this disease but to read that you have had surgery is such a positive first post to read.
Hi Sally,
That is great news about them discovering your cancer so early and being able to have surgery. I too was diagnosed at an early stage. Mine was extra-hepatic CC and I was able to have Whipple surgery to remove it with clean margins and no lymph node involvement.
I faced the same dilemma that you are facing right now. Doctors said I could have chemo and radiation but that the choice was mine. They could not say if it would help or not. After getting a few opinions, I decided to have chemo but not radiation. I chose not to have radiation because there really is no evidence that it helps and having had radiation previously for breast cancer, I decided that the potential long term effects were not worth it for me. I had 6 cycles of Gemzar (1x week for 3 weeks, 1 week off). It wasn’t a picnic, but it wasn’t as horrible as some chemos I’ve heard about.
So…as everyone will tell you…to have chemo or not is a personal decision. No one else, not even the doctors, can make it for you. Whatever decision you make will be the right one for you. Once it’s made, live with it, no regrets, because we can’t go back and change things with regrets.
Make your choice in consultation with your doctor and choose your path. No one can say one path is better than another in your (or my) situation.
Please keep us posted as to your progress and if you want to ‘chat’ more about this, please feel free to email me at randi.barrell@gmail.com.
Hugs,
-Randi-I had clean resections and a very small tumor (0.75cm x 0.75cm x 0.5cm) in the bile duct only but had 3/4 of the liver removed as well as the bile duct and gall bladder. I was in the same boat as you, clean margins, but what do you do regarding chemo? I ended up doing both Chemo and Radiation. Chemo was a combo of Gemzar and Cisplatin, 6 cycles (2 weeks on, one week off per cycle) and Radiation was 5 days a week, 5 weeks total. I finished Radiation in June of 2012 and have had 3 clean scans since. Hope this helps…
Hi,
the following link may be of help if interested.
http://www.cholangiocarcinoma.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=7843
God bless.
Dear Sally, welcome to our remarkable family and if you are here we already know how courageous, loving and kind you are! You are truly one of the lucky ones. Wow! Hope you are recovering nicely and congratulations. To chemo or not is the biggest question, always. My husband never had chemo so I am sorry I cannot guide you there but I do know others will definitely chime in here. Be patient as it is the weekend so things may be a little slow but they will come. Can you tell us a little more about your journey, we love being nosey. Where are you being treated? Again welcome, you have come to the right place.
Hi All, Hate to meet here but here we are. I was going into OR for Gastric By-Pass surgery and when I awoke the Doc said he was unable to do bypass because he found liver cancer. So I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I had no symptoms. Now the cancer on my liver has been completely removed. The surrounding tissue was clean. Now my dilemma is my doctor recommending chemo. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Sally
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