please please please help meunderstand these PET scan results

[violette28]

Dear all, please help me understand the pet scan of my dad. He had the whipple last june. then he had a second surgery because they suspected metastasis, which turned out to be an ulcer. then he had 6 cycles of chemo. his CA-19 is a little bit elevated 80, but the doctor said it can be anything and they should do the scans before decide what to do. so the normal scan did not show anything. the pet scan showed 1 lesion on the liver 13 mm SUV 4.7. we are waiting for the comission of doctors to nterpret the results, but that will be after next week. On the pet scan it is written that this lesion is assosciated with the main disease. please tell me is this SUV borderline, can it be a false positive at this point, if this is a single lesion can we just operate, what are our options. I figure that his tumor marker is not that elevated and this SuV is not that high, am i wrong?? please help me, i am sinking again into hopelessness. i hate this disease and have no strength.

[Didge]

Hi Violette. There are various treatments for a one small liver met. He may be offered more chemo (he probably will) but there is also a possibility that they will try to take it out surgically. However, even if they do, they would probably want to do more chemo as this means that the disease is spread and they need to try to prevent it spreading further. If he is well enough they may offer folfirnox which has a very good success rate with liver tumours in some people. it all depends on the individual and how well they tolerate it. Good luck, it is a terrible thing to cope with. You may also considered nanoknife or ablation. But my partner lived more than a year after he was diagnosed with several liver mets - the folfirinox significantly reduced them but in the end he couldn't tolerate more chemo. However, they are making progress with new treatments so any time you can get gives you longer for something else to be considered. x

[Guest]

Hi Violette,

I'm sorry that you are having to wait for information on your Dad's scans, waiting can be terribly difficult.

We all understand the need to try an pre-diagnose or second guess the meaning of results but none of us are qualified to do so and our guesses may actually undermine the trust you have in the medics treating your father by raising possibilities and explanations which are inappropriate.

I hope that you can think of ways to occupy your thoughts and take advantage of any good days until you get the the results explained by his doctors.

Wishing you good news

Marmalade

[raun cesar]

Violette sorry to hear of your dad, i can understand the waiting time is painful. I fear you need to seek professional advice in this regard as its different for everyone. Hope things will change positively for him.