Mom's liver mets update

Hello everybody! Mom and Dad just called from Houston and Mom got another "great" report from her oncologist. Just to remind everyone where Mom is in treatment, she had been taking taxol/carbo/herceptin for 10 mos and achieved shrinkage of her liver tumor from almost 8cm to around 2cm. Her onc. considers this stable so she has been on herceptin only for the past three months. We were all extremely nervous about this round of tests b/c they also threw in a bone scan since she hadn't had one since diagnosis last spring. Anyway - there was no spread of cancer to her bones or anywhere else. Her liver tumor stayed the same size but her tumor markers have gone down?? Does that make sense? Her heart tests were good also. So it's herceptin for now and she doesn't go back for scans until July. We're all so excited she's stable and she's also feeling great!! Just wanted to pass on the news. Thanks to everyone. Brittany

Great news for your mom!!! Just wanted to respond your question about TM's going down, while tumor is stable...Has your mom been having CT/PET scans to evaluate her response, or just CT's?
I have had multiple liver lesions in the past & responded very well to a year on Taxol/Herceptin. After a number of previous CT's showed "stable" disease, we finally did a CT/PET to determine if what we were still seeing was live/active disease. As it turns out, all the stuff that was showing up on the CT was scar tissue.
So, if in fact you mom's scans have been CT only, it's possible that it's just scar tissue that is showing up & not active lesions. That might be the reason that the TM's have decreased.
I sure hope so!!! Take good care & Keep the Faith!

Hello Brittany. I'm happy to hear your mom is stable.

The fact that her tumor has remained the same size with low TMs may mean there is no active disease in the lesion and you're simply seeing necrotic tissue. Has she had a PET scan? This will show if there is any viable tumor (up to a point).

My wife has recently had a recurrance of her liver met after receiving the same combination therapy as your mom. She has been on herceptin only since last November. Her recent CT scan showed her remaining liver met has doubled in size to 2.7 cm. We are exploring radiofrequency ablation to destroy this single lesion. The problem is the location. We found out they'll have to go through her lung to perform the procedure. Afterward she'll try another chemo/herceptin combination. Taxol and Carbo are out since she developed toxicity to these agents.

Just because she had a recurrance doesn't mean your mother will also. EVERYONE responds differently to therapy.

Take care,
Bill, husband to Sandy
dx Nov03
Total Mastectomy 1/04
Numerous liver mets
ER-, PR-, Her2+
Taol/Carbo/Herceptin
Complete remission except for one 1cm lesion with no activity per PET
3/05 recurrance liver

Hi Brittany, It's great that your Mom is stable, I just wanted you to know that this could last for quite some time. I have had mets to lung, spine, (9) tumors in liver. Started taxol & hercptin in Feb. of 2003 until June 2003. Have been only on Herceptin since June 2003 and still stable. I only have two stable 1cm tumors left in my liver and on last ct they are less dense, which means their not active. Thank God for Hercptin!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kathie