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Bunty · 03-20-2014, 10:49 PM

So I think the title of this thread should now read "My Next Hurdle". So yesterday I went in again, this time for a trial planning session using the vacuum abdominal pressure bag to attempt to minimise movement of my liver. Now that was an interesting experience donning a plastic poncho which was then adhered to my special bean bag, and then inserting a vacuum hose to suck out all the air - they start slowly and get to 20% and see how you go, and it was whoa, and then I told them to keep going, and let me tell you at 100% you can hardly get a breath (it feels like that, but of course you can). So after two hours of this breathing through a snorkel with my nose clamped shut, it felt like I had been hit by a bus, but the bus was still on top of me! They also tried another technique as well with very long breath holds, which I could do. Anyway cutting a long story short, the radiation onc called me to say that the pressure technique didn't stop movement enough. He's off to a liver cancer meeting in Korea tomorrow, and then to a radiation oncology meeting in Europe, and is travelling with a colleague who is a specialist in removing liver tumours surgically. So he is going to talk to him on my behalf. However, I still may go down the track of having the fiducials inserted in the liver for the long breath hold technique, and doing all the planning, but there is no guarantee that it will work either. I think I'm leaning towards surgery at this point. Damn tumour too close to my bowel! I know a number of you have had resection so that gives me hope, but SBRT was going to be far less invasive. I'll keep you posted.
Cheers Marie

03-20-2014, 10:49 PM	#17
Bunty Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 473	Re: My Next Step So I think the title of this thread should now read "My Next Hurdle". So yesterday I went in again, this time for a trial planning session using the vacuum abdominal pressure bag to attempt to minimise movement of my liver. Now that was an interesting experience donning a plastic poncho which was then adhered to my special bean bag, and then inserting a vacuum hose to suck out all the air - they start slowly and get to 20% and see how you go, and it was whoa, and then I told them to keep going, and let me tell you at 100% you can hardly get a breath (it feels like that, but of course you can). So after two hours of this breathing through a snorkel with my nose clamped shut, it felt like I had been hit by a bus, but the bus was still on top of me! They also tried another technique as well with very long breath holds, which I could do. Anyway cutting a long story short, the radiation onc called me to say that the pressure technique didn't stop movement enough. He's off to a liver cancer meeting in Korea tomorrow, and then to a radiation oncology meeting in Europe, and is travelling with a colleague who is a specialist in removing liver tumours surgically. So he is going to talk to him on my behalf. However, I still may go down the track of having the fiducials inserted in the liver for the long breath hold technique, and doing all the planning, but there is no guarantee that it will work either. I think I'm leaning towards surgery at this point. Damn tumour too close to my bowel! I know a number of you have had resection so that gives me hope, but SBRT was going to be far less invasive. I'll keep you posted. Cheers Marie __________________ dx Dec 2000 dcis 2.5cm clear sentinel node, ER/PR- Her-2+ lumpectomy, 6 cycles AC, 6 weeks rads October 2007 three x 2.5cm lung mets. 8 months Taxol, started Herceptin and continue. Significant reduction in lung mets. June 2011 3cm x 4cm liver tumour. Started Abraxane and continue with Herceptin. November 2011. Finished with Abraxane, continue with just Herceptin. Liver tumour now reduced to 15mm x 12mm. Lung tumour now 10mm x 0.5mm February 2012. Scans show everything stable, and brain scan clear. July 2012. PET/CT scans show I'm in remission - no active cancer! ]Dec CT brain cllear, lungs stable, liver tumour has increased to 20mm. PET scans showed active liver met and active lung thinglet, and possible bone met. Jan 2013 recommence Abraxane, continue with Herceptin. June 2013 finish Cycle 6 Abraxane, continue with Herceptin. 30% reduction in liver tumour, everything stable. December 2013. CA15-3 on rise. February 2014. PET and CT scans show single liver tumour has increased to 35mm. No other activity. March 2014. Planned for SBRT for liver met, but couldn't have treatment as tumour too close to bowel. Continue Herceptin. April 2014. Surgeon advises that I am a good candidate for liver resection, so will have operation early May (after camping holiday). Tumour now 44mm x 29mm. May 7, 2014. Two liver tumours surgically removed. Third of liver removed, and gall bladder. Am I NED?May 2014. Pathology of tumour shows it's now ER+ (95% staining). June 2014. CA15-3 has decreased to 18 from a pre-surgery reading of 59! June 2014. Started Femara, continue with Herceptin. July 2014. Stop Femara due to severe Osteoporosis. Commence Tamoxifen, continue Herceptin. Waiting to hear if I can have Aclasta infusion. August 2014. CA15-3 has decreased further to 12 - YAY! October 2014. Aclasta infusion for Osteoporosis. November 2014, CA15-3 decreased to 11. Scans of liver all clear, something new showing up on lung, but just watching at the moment. November 2015. Started SBRT on solitary lung met. November 2015. Bone density scan showed very good improvement so back on Femara - yay! December 2016. 6 treatments of SBRT radiation on lung. Seems to have had some effect. June 2016. CA15-3 still stable and low at 9. June 2016. Started subcutaneous Herceptin replacing infusion. Jan 2017. LVEF dropped to 46%. Stopped Herceptin. Feb 2017. Started ACE Inhibitor and BETA Blocker. Still off Herceptin. Aug 2017. Two new mets - Portacaval lymph node and mediastinal lymph node. Aug 2017. Blood tests show extremely elevated liver enzyme levels. Many tests to investigate. Sept 2017. Portacaval lymph node blocking liver bile duct causing liver enzyme and Bilirubin problems. Oct 2017. 8cm stent inserted into liver bile duct. Procedure caused pancreatitis, and hospitalised for 3 days. Liver enzymes improving rapidly. Nov 2017. Commenced 4 weeks of radiation on Portacaval lymph node. 5 week break before chemo. Jan 2018. CT scan. 11 new small liver mets, and new superclavical lymph node med. Jan 2018. Start Kadcyla. CA15-3 426. Apr 2018. First scans since starting Kadcyla. All tumours reducing. CA15-3 dropped to 30 from 426. Dec 2019. Still on Kadcyla, but two small brain mets have been treated in the past month with SRS. CA15-3 stable for 12 months at 11.