We need to monitor not only for liver function but also for kidney function. However kidney problems are much less frequent.

Patients who undergo chemotherapy know that every time they receive chemotherapy, oncologists take blood to test for blood counts and also for liver and kidney function. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the major sites of tumor spread of colon cancer spread is the liver.

The liver can compensate for a long time despite having large tumors.  This is reason that our blood tests of liver function remain normal despite the liver having multiple lesions.  However, if the tumors grow to a certain size or interfere with the bile ducts, they can cause the liver enzymes. including the bilirubin, to increase. When bilirubin increases patients develop jaundice, indicating that the liver is not functioning well. Read the rest of this entry »

I have a patient, in fact a movie producer with metastatic colon cancer, who had liver metastases. He enrolled in a clinical trial (SWOG 80405) and responded very well to chemotherapy. His liver metastases were not resectable at first, but because his tumor shrank so dramatically, he became resectable. He underwent surgery with curative intent, meaning to remove all tumors, which was successful. He finished further chemotherapy and is right now cancer free. He is one of the success stories of aggressive chemotherapy.

He did very well with chemotherapy and he attributes his attitude and very few side effects to his regular tai chi. So I did some research on tai chi and found interesting information I wanted to share with you. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last 5 years many support groups and websites have been developed which offer information, resources, access to groups and chat rooms, and even radio stations.

It is not easy to navigate through the overwhelming information available on the web. It is even more important today that we evaluate these information sources to make a better decisions on treatment. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most important fears after a cancer diagnosis is suffering during chemotherapy. But patients also are afraid that the cancer will cause suffering  from pain that can’t be treated. Almost all patients with cancer are most afraid of pain and controlling it.

It is so important that cancer patients and their caregivers know how to manage pain because patients in pain do not eat, do not drink do not exercise, and do not interact. One of the major misconception for pain control is that the patient will become addicted. Patients may want to save medicine for it when it gets really bad. It needs to be very clear that the best pain control is early intervention. When pain is developing is the time take a painkiller. Don’t wait til it reaches 10/10. Read the rest of this entry »