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This is my first post to this board. My 56-year-old sister was diagnosed in May with  unresectable stage 4 intrahepatic cc. It was a bad period leading up to the diagnosis - they found a mass on her liver, did a biopsy, did a PVE, only to go in and open her up in May and say that the cancer had spread to all parts of her liver, and stomach and lymph, and she was therefore inoperable.

She then went on xeloda/gemzar for 6 months and confounded everyone by doing fabulously. The tumors almost disappeared to nothing. She felt great and it was really hard to believe she was sick. Sadly, for the past 3 weeks we've noticed that she is feeling nauseous again and her CEA levels have gone from around 5 or 6 to 6.6 and then 10.3.

She is going to have a PET scan to basically confirm that the cancer is on the move again. Her oncologist is thinking of moving her off xeloda/gemzar and trying taxotere. It sounds like it's not targeted specifically for cc (it's a broad spectrum drug used for cancer of the breast, prostate, etc). It also sounds like it will be much harder to tolerate.

Does this sound like the best next step? It just seems like many of you have been on other things like oxaliplatin or cisplatin or 5 FU b4 moving to something like this. Her oncologist thinks that any type of chemo like xeloda/gemzar will fail which is why he wants to try this other drugs.

My question to the group is - has anyone ever used Taxotere? And also, does this sound like the best next step?

Thanks so much.

Warmly,
Chris