I had a 4.5 cm lesion, so I am not sure if my example would follow the same treatment pathway. But here it is for what it's worth.
First of all I had the tumour attacked by two procedures of chemoembolisation, otherwise known as TACE. You are sedated but conscious. You are put on an operating table under some sort of scanner. A local anaesthetic is placed in one of your thighs. Then, a probe is inserted into the femoral artery. (By this time, you are pretty spaced out so are not left with many memories.) The probe is guided via the scanner up your arterial system into the liver, specifically into the branch that supplies the tumour with blood. Then, the probe releases numerous small beads coated with chemotherapeutic agent which simultaneously poison the tumour and block the blood supply.
At this point, there is some pain as the tumour is deprived of oxygen. You will be administered extra pain relief through your drip. Over the next few hours, this pain will reduce until, by evening, it's mostly gone. You may be let out of the hospital the next day or the one after.
An advantage of TACE is that the chemotherapy is local, rather than whole-body, so the side effects are much less. I was given codeine and anti-sickness meds when sent home. I had a slight fever for a few days but that's all. I felt more or less normal after about a week. I kept my hair.
I had a second TACE done, although what the gap between them was I can't remember. Some time after that I had radio-frequency ablation but have no memory of that since it was done under general anaesthesia. A sort of, "Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure," treatment. There was some pain afterwards and it caused complications much later as my liver had been cauterised to the inner wall of my abdomen. (My tumour was on the surface of the liver.)
Later from this, at a review appointment, I caught sight of the lesion on a scan. It had taken serious damage, no doubt about that. It looked like the Battle of Stalingrad.
I then had a year free from treatment to see what happened. Nothing happened. The wreckage of the lesion showed no sign of life. So, I was then put on the liver transplant list and was transplanted eight months later. That's a whole other story but I still live six years after the initial diagnosis of cancer.
Incidentally, when my diseased liver was removed, they put the lesion under a microscope. The cancer had been completely annihilated. Not one cell survived. Total extermination.
There's a massive psychological element to all this that the hospitals are not so well equipped to deal with. In particular, your liver doctors are interested in livers and not much else. To some extent, you are on your own (at least I was) and will have to draw on personal mental resources and fortitude. Even if you make it through to the other side of a "cure" your life is taken over by the shadow of what's happened. I have coped by living day to day, staying occupied by immersive projects that thrive on living in the moment (e.g. learning a new language). I was also referred by my GP's pharmacist to a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) workshop which I found quite helpful. I was amazed to see that it was attended predominately by good looking younger people who were physically healthy but who seemed far more depressed than me! This convinced me that a lot of mental suffering comes from how you react to your own thoughts. CBT training helps you with this. Ask your GP about it.
Best wishes to you sir. There is hope and treatments seem to be improving all the time.
Thanks for replying to my post it is very much appreciated and very informative,still to talk this over with consultant but during atelephone conversation with him he said I could have one or more of TACE treatments and then possibly liver section,so I am patiently awaiting an appointment with him.
Hello mate, I had TACE for a liver cancer tumour in 2013 and again in 2019 for lesions in the liver. The procedure itself was no problem it sounds more scary than it is. The after effects are quite nasty for a few weeks but slowly slowly little by little you begin to get stronger. I found getting up and doing small walks helps as all you really want to do is stay in bed all day but this will waste your muscles so it’s important to get up little and often. The other thing that is difficult to do is eat and drink. I found smoothies help as you can put in what you like and you can taylor make it to your taste. My favourite is 2 x bananas, strawberries, lemon juice and full fat milk. The other thing I do now is drink becks blue non alcohol lager. by the way I am 59 and in a good place now. Any other questions please ask as.
Hi Colin S I had TACE almost 3 weeks ago and am still feeling rotten, weak like a baby, I am forcing myself to walk at least 3/4 mie per day, how long did the weakness last and when did your appetite come back Cheers
