Have you got an appointment to speak to anyone about your condition? I have been diagnosed with bowel cancer and have a meeting with oncology next week to find out when my treatment will start.
Welcome to the forum . When cancer has spread they generally use a systemic approach first . They want to treat the primary tumour and the spread at the same time including any micro disease . When my mum was first diagnosed I found it hard that they did not go straight to surgery but with hindsight it was chemo that was the big player to begin with in her longevity. They try to stabilise the disease or indeed creat some shrinkage with chemo .
Once they have achieved this they scan again and have another mdt meeting to get the collective heads to investigate the next move .
Depending on the size of the spread they may continue with chemo , send for a surgical opinion on the liver and bowel or look at treatments for the liver like radio frequency ablation . They aim to treat it like a chronic condition with different treatment options .
My own my had chemo over two years and then an extensive liver resection at a centre of excellence. She had 73% remove and never had dither issues with her liver .
She lived for 15 years following a stage 4 diagnosis.
The treatment plan for you is also determined by the size of the spread and your cell types. If you have had a biopsy take they will tell you what type of cell type you have .
With bowel cancer being one of the more common cancers there are many treatment options available and your team will chat this through with you .
Court, thank you for your reply. I didn't know that bowel cancer was relatively common. I survived breast cancer 26 years ago.
The fact that there are plenty of options is reassuring. If one chemotherapy option makes me too unwell, ( Already happened) I can get put on another one.
Medical staff all great but they don't share these snippets of handy information. I wish they would.
