• Registered: Mon, 23 Apr 2007
  • Posts: 11

Topic: Therasphere

Dad just received stent today and all went well Hopefully his bilirubin will drop into a range to allow him to receive therasphere.  He will be the first pt at Mayo Clinic in rodchester MN to receive the tx. If all goes well,, I will shout it from the mountain top to help all others out there with cc. The scary thing about my dad is that Mayo just about wrote him off, told him to go home and that he would have 6-9 months to live. That was prior to getting final path report. Then prior to his stent, one of his doctors was quite negative, told him that they may not even place stent if his common bile duct wasn't blocked. Thank God literally, that all went well.
We still have hope,
Lana

  • JeffG
  • Moderator
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  • From: Kansas
  • Registered: Mon, 16 Oct 2006
  • Posts: 1,242

Re: Therasphere

Lana..... Hope is always in the air .......  Therasphere I understand can be a toughy for a couple weeks of post side effects.  Wish you and your Dad the best !  A prayer of support is headed your way!
Jeff G.

Take it to the Limit,One More Time! (Eagles)
  • Marc
  • New Member
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  • Registered: Thu, 26 Apr 2007
  • Posts: 4

Re: Therasphere

Keep us informed on your Dad's progress. I will be praying for him.

Marc

  • Registered: Mon, 23 Apr 2007
  • Posts: 11

Re: Therasphere

Thank you all so very much for having this website! Unfortunately, dad was unable to get therasphere. They did a trial run with some dye. He would have gotten too much radiation in his lungs. He had his second chemoembolization this weekend. 1st treatment was brutal!!! He had a lot of pain after procedure. The 2nd time was much better, other than vomiting bile. We are hoping to shrink tumor to give him some more options(preferably resection). Can anyone tell me why people with cholangiocarcinoma are not candidates for liver transplant? Seems to me that not too many people have even been given this chance. Dad is #15 case with his praticular type of cancer being treated at Mayo Clinic. He has intrahepatic cholangio. Very difficult to compare apples to apples with this rare type of cancer.
God Bless all of you,
Please know that our prayers are with you and your families always.
Lana

  • Registered: Sat, 09 Dec 2006
  • Posts: 514

Re: Therasphere

Hi Lana,
It's great that your father seems to be responding to treatment - may he continue to do well! I just wanted to answer one question you brought up: why cc patients aren't offered liver transplants. I looked into that a lot when my mother was diagnosed, and it turns out that even those with transplants wind up having some of the cancer recur in the new liver or elsewhere in the body -- the invisible seeds of cancer are still there. If you're in an early stage, they can do resection and part of the liver regenerates, so I guess they figure that's better than wasting a liver on someone who's in later stages, when there's almost certainly cancer lurking around. Too bad they can't make artificial livers - yet. Here's hoping!

Love and hope to you and yours,
Joyce

  • bill
  • Senior Member
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  • Registered: Thu, 12 Oct 2006
  • Posts: 57

Re: Therasphere

Therasphere at Mayo Clinic has been a miracle treeatment for my wife Kathleen.  She was treated twice in Rochester (Oct. 2006 and Feb. 2007) and the liver tumors were halted and side effects were non-existent.  No more Therasphere can be given and tumors have spread to the lungs so next step is Sorafenib.   

Kathleen was diagnosed at Mayo in July 2002 with CC.  The diagnosis was changed last summer to a mixed tumor (CC and HCC) while she was being evaluated for a liver transplant at U of MN.     

Less than 10% of patients with liver cancer survive more than 5 years so she is a success story.  Her web-site is www.carepages.com under "kathleenmfoley".