[chrisy]

Sorry the news was not what you wanted to hear. While I am still hoping, along with you, that the final report will be better, I hope you can see from the earlier posts that there are many options for you. And that even liver mets need not be an immediate death sentence! There is much reason to be hopeful.

If it is a single lesion, even of that size, I would explore options for local control (such as jessica was discussing) as that could help you quickly gain control and possibly set you up for a long term "NED".

It willl really just depend on what options are feasible, and how you respond to that.

When I was diagnosed with liver mets (numerous, throughout my liver), my doctor advised me to "go with the sure thing" (being chemo) and maybe do a clinical trial later. Note, in my case RFA, resect etc. was not an option because of the widespread nature of the disease.

At the time, I think that was the best advice and that's what I did. That strategy worked well for me and subsequently I have participated in clinical trials including one of the early TDM1 studies. But if I was facing that initial diagnosis now, I would seriously consider getting into a TDM1 study as my first line of attack. You would be followed very closely on study, so would know how it's going and could still switch to a more chemo based regimen if necessary.

The one thing I would not do is try Herceptin alone...while Herceptin is our miracle drug, it mainly acts to stop/slow tumor growth vs. killl it; and usually in conjunction with chemo. You really don't want to mess around with liver mets - it's important to get control of that. Once you have control, you can switch to herceptin as a maintenance thing.

You are doing the right thing by exploring all your options. As you learn more, you will make the right decisions for you.

do not lose heart.

Chris