looking for info on liver cancer

[clgpgh]

My mother in law is 52 and has metastatic liver cancer. Prior finding out just recently about the cancer in the liver, she had breast, lung, and bone. The breast and lung disappeared with treatments, but she has cancer in almost every bone. She does not ask the doctors any questions and does not listen to what they tell her about her disease. Our family thinks that her living unaware of the disease helps her by not thinking about it all of the time. I had a friend pull up her latest scan to tell me about the severity of the liver. The report shows that there are too many tumors to count and are throughout the entire liver. She is unable to receive treatments because she is too weak. Right now her symptoms are fatigue, incontinence, and nausea. I know that she is not doing good and I know she does not have much time left. Her tumor markers are over 6000. What does that mean? I am afraid that she is going to go down hill really fast and no one is going to expect it because her family seems to want to live in the dark along with her. How long can she be expected to live?

[Cinderally]

Hello - I am sorry to hear about your mother in law.  My grandfather (on my mom's side) was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1980. He was 62 at the time.  When they operated on the colon, they discover mets to the liver, but it was too late to operate on the liver.

So, they did chemo a couple of times, I believe.  He ended up very weak and down with nausea, much like your mother in law. (since I was a kid at the time, I cannot tell you from memory how much was achieved with the chemo alone).  He opted/they opted to stop chemo altogether because of his weakened state.

After the last chemo was over and done with, he started to feel more like himself. He moved out to live near our family in Southern California.  When I first saw him, he looked very weak and skinny.  But, he loved to lay out by the pool.  He started to get his strength back after a while and he started golfing again (this is all about two years after initial diagnosis.)

He lived a normal, happy life (even started dating a new lady or two, ha,ha).  He lived for seven more years and passed away following an elective surgery unrelated to his liver cancer.  He died from a blood-clot in his leg after the procedure.

So, there is certainly hope that she is not living in the dark, but, instead, simply living.  She is very young.  My grandpa was in his 60's and he did very well with an equally severe liver, although he did not have it in his lungs or bones.

Hang in there, she might bounce back and be fine for many more years - Take Care

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

The high tumor markers mean that she has cancer metastasis to other parts of the body as well. It would be good to get a doctor to see her now.

Nothing can be said about the life expectancy at this point of time. You could just be there around her for emotional support.

Good luck.