it's about dad again. he has once again been warded in cgh over the past few days. the consultant attending to him had asked to see all of us (his children) today. and as explained, dad has been found to have liver cancer. about 5cm at this point and likely to have spread to the nearby blood vessels. as to spreading to other parts of the body, it was not too apparent at this point in time.
there is no way to cure him except to slow down the process or limit the growth of the cancer. and to do this, there were limited options too. surgery and other invasive procedures are not advised due to his liver condition and his age. and oral medication and cutting off the cancerous growth using laser is not possible due to the extent of the growth. the only possible way that could slow down the growth would be to do this procedure called `tace'. it involves cutting a slit at his groin area, inserting a tube to the growth and injecting some chemicals to it. there might be a need to do 4-6 of such procedures. and to test the effectiveness of tace, there is a need to inject some dye into his body each time he undergo the procedure before deciding if he should go for another tace. and the catch here is, every step of this procedure come with some risk. and given that he has weak kidneys, the injection of the dye might cause the kidneys to fail...
tricky. devil and the deep blue sea. according to the consultant, he has perhaps a year or less to live if he remains as he is. if he undergo tace and is successful, he can possibly live another 3-4 years. if not, perhaps a year or less. but if complication sets in during the tace process, he might end up worst than not doing... tough decision. in the end, we decide that he should be referred to the national cancer center for further opinions and advise before deciding on the next step.
tace: transarterial chemoembolization, it is a procedure in which the blood supply to a tumor is blocked (embolized) and chemotherapy is administered directly into the tumor. used to treat liver cancer (definition from medicinenet.com)
there is no way to cure him except to slow down the process or limit the growth of the cancer. and to do this, there were limited options too. surgery and other invasive procedures are not advised due to his liver condition and his age. and oral medication and cutting off the cancerous growth using laser is not possible due to the extent of the growth. the only possible way that could slow down the growth would be to do this procedure called `tace'. it involves cutting a slit at his groin area, inserting a tube to the growth and injecting some chemicals to it. there might be a need to do 4-6 of such procedures. and to test the effectiveness of tace, there is a need to inject some dye into his body each time he undergo the procedure before deciding if he should go for another tace. and the catch here is, every step of this procedure come with some risk. and given that he has weak kidneys, the injection of the dye might cause the kidneys to fail...
tricky. devil and the deep blue sea. according to the consultant, he has perhaps a year or less to live if he remains as he is. if he undergo tace and is successful, he can possibly live another 3-4 years. if not, perhaps a year or less. but if complication sets in during the tace process, he might end up worst than not doing... tough decision. in the end, we decide that he should be referred to the national cancer center for further opinions and advise before deciding on the next step.
tace: transarterial chemoembolization, it is a procedure in which the blood supply to a tumor is blocked (embolized) and chemotherapy is administered directly into the tumor. used to treat liver cancer (definition from medicinenet.com)
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