Can chemotherapy cure metastatic liver cancer?

In all the metastatic liver cancer stories we gathered, none of them is told by a cancer survivor. Some do get chemotherapy, but this cancer treatment is only to: reduce pain (in case it can temporarily reduce or slow down the growth of a c...

In all the metastatic liver cancer stories we gathered, none of them is told by a cancer survivor.

Some do get chemotherapy, but this cancer treatment is only to:

• reduce pain (in case it can temporarily reduce or slow down the growth of a cancer)
  
• prolong life.

But we get puzzled when reading Kistan2’s comment on Avastin for metastatic liver cancer where she says :

they tried another infusion of Avastin but
we all knew that this next infusion of Avastin
wouldn’t do anything to help my husband

What worries me is where Kistan2 says : we all knew that this next infusion of Avastin wouldn’t do anything.

3 worried questions come in mind%26hellip;

• when you know Avastin is not going to help, then why is it still given?
  
• are you sure %26#34;all%26#34; knew?

  Father had clearly asked if there was any chemotherapy that could cure him, and the answer given to father was a clear NO.

  Having that knowledge, it’s no point in discussing 5FU, Avastin, Nexavar or what we thought was quite a cute medicine: Xeloda (being a pill that supposedly only starts working when it finds a cancer cell%26hellip;, don’t be fooled: it’s chemotherapy taken orally%26hellip;).

• do you tell the patient he or she is dying?

  When people don’t know the cancer will kill them, then these people still have hope and courage to try anything.

  In father’s case:

  if he was told there was hope for a cure,
  he would have taken a severe chemotherapy cocktail, no matter what.

  Severe, as he had secondary liver cancer with unknown primary. In proper English: nobody knew where his cancer originated from, so in order for a chemotherapy to be effective, they needed to fight %26#34;all cancers possible%26#34;.

Always ask your oncologist what can be expected and
how sure he is relying on his experience.

In simple words: in my experience I have a few friends that survived breast cancer after being treated with radiation, mastectomy and chemotherapy. So when I hear ‘breast cancer�?I have hope (knowing very well that treating breast cancer is a much more difficult and much longer road than surviving dengue fever or treating a cold).

When it comes to metastatic liver cancer, my experience so far is: not having encountered any secondary liver cancer survivor. If you have, please ask him or her to share with us his cancer story!

Technorati Tags: 5FU, avastin, avastin for metastatic liver cancer, chemotherapy, metastatic liver cancer cure, nexavar, xeloda