cancer gall bladder with metastasis

My brother 51 year old had a expl laporotomy on 15 feb 2010, a single lymph node in the omentum was positive for adenocarcinoma with primary in GB ,underwent  8 cycles of chemo wIth Gemcytabine & cisplatin & also IMRT 25 cycles local radiation with gemcytabine .HIS CA 19.9 was initially 2400, then 400 in august but now is 3200.His latest PET SCAN shows some spread in liver, pancreas, infraclavicular node & is now being treated with CISPLATIN & CAPECITABINE. WANTED TO GIVE HIM THE BEST TREATMENT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD HENCE USING THIS FORUM

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

CA 19-9 is a tumor marker in gall bladder cancer and raised levels are used to detect secondaries or spread of cancer. Therapy is based on the stage of cancer and also on the histological grading of the cancer. With therapy the CA 19-9 levels should come down.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.  

[drpankaj99]

Thanks Anitha, he has already recieved chemo with gemcitabine& cisplatin 5cycles followed by IMRT -25CYCLES OF local radiation with gmcitabine, his ca 19.9 was 2400 to start with came down to 400 but after another 4 cycles of gemcet& cisplatin went up to 3200, hence feel IMRT& NEXT CHEMO WAS INEFFECTIVE, NOW  has been advised chemo with cisplatin & oral capacitabine for 4 cycles. My problem is till now he has not had any symptomsof the disease per say but the chemo is like a torture & may be not effective in his case, he feels tempted to try some alternative system of medicine , some friend suggested dharamshala where the Dalai lama 's physician has some good tibetan medicine for Ca gall bladder hence wanted some help from this forum
  

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Understand your predicament. I am not sure how effective the alternative systems of medicine are. He may not exhibit any symptoms now, but as the secondaries spread he is likely to show symptoms. Along with the tumor markers, monitoring the original growth and whole body scan may help assess the status.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.