To Jessica re RFA

Hi Jessica -

Last year I had a 3 cm tumor in my liver for 2 1/2 yrs. We tried Nabelbine then Gemzar. On me these did not work more then 8 months. I decided to have the RFA procedure done last Sept. followed by 6 months of Xeloda. At this time we discovered that the tumor was back. Although my surgeon thought he got a good margin of burn, apparently my tumor was very resilient and some of it survived and made it's own blood supply again.

This Sept. I decided for him to remove half of my liver in order to hopefully get rid of this one forever. I am doing fine and at present my tumor markers are in normal range. I have opted not to have any more chemo for right now and keep a close eye on my markers (which for me seem to be a good indicator when something is stirring again) followed by scans every 6 months. Big decision on my part.

Everyone's body is different so I hate to say what I did and encourage/discourage someone else. Someothers on this site have had the RFA to their liver with great success and I would try it again if I had to.

If that is the only tumor you have, I would highly consider the abalation. It's not a difficult procedure to go through as far as recovery and might just do the trick. And you will get rid of that one.

Good luck in your decision and if you have any further questions, I will gladly try to help.

Irene