[chrisy]

Rich,
No matter how old we get, our parents are still our mommy and daddy, and we are always their babies.

And although of course you are worried, do not lose heart. People can, and do live with cancer, even liver mets and although it is not curable (yet), it is treatable. For some people it can be managed as a chronic condition.

Sorry to hear about your mom's likely recurrence. Even though she has other issues she is dealing with which may complicate treatment decisions, there will still be some treatment options available to her. You still don't have all the information you need but are on the right track to get it with the upcoming biopsy.

If liver mets are confirmed, her oncologist should also ask for other tests (bone scan, brain mri, ECHO), because it is important to know what you are dealing with.

At that point, you can start looking at options. You will of course need to work within your mom's overall health issues, but many treatments are available that can be effective for a long time and with much less toxicity. It's not like it used to be in the past. Since she did not have chemo before, she may respond very very well to treatment.

Getting the heart checked out is probably the key, as the Her2 targeted therapies can impact heart function, although it is more of an issue when adriamycin has been part of a treatment plan.

If the disease is confined to only the liver, she may be a candidate for local treatment to the liver with RFA (radiofrequency ablation) which is not too invasive...but also not yet proven or "standard of care" so it's tough to get it paid for by insurance or medicare.

Anyway, do not lose heart, there is lots of hope out there. The picture is changing every day as researchers focus on more targeted therapies like herceptin and tykerb which go after the cancer without destroying the patient.

I'm still here 4 years post mets diagnosis, am nearly back in remission and plan to be around for quite a while.

Hang in there
Chris