Have You Received a Diagnosis of Liver, Colon, or Pancreatic Cancer?

Phoenix surgery

You would like to think that cancer is simply making a brief intrusion into your life, rather than fearing that you have now entered into a world of cancer that you may never be able to escape. Unfortunately, however, the diagnosis of liver cancer was a devastating piece of news that you were totally not prepared for. You have two beautiful young children and a loving wife. With a daughter in middle school and a son who is still in elementary school, you hardy have time for the the full regimen that your doctors have described. You should be spending your weekends coaching your daughter’s soccer team and Wednesday nights helping with your sons pre-confirmation classes at church.
If someone would have asked you a month ago if you had time for two to three four hour treatments in your week, you would have laughed. Too busy with meetings at work; too busy with weekend tasks around the house; too busy with being a dad and a husband. As it stands, however, you have had to completely clear your calendar of many other things just so you can make room for the chemotherapy appointments that leave you exhausted and nauseous.
What a difference a month makes.
Liver Problems Can be Signs of Bigger Issues That Can Require Transplants or Liver Surgery
The percentage of Americans who can now be considered for liver resection has jumped to almost 30%. This is good news, because it means that in recent years healthcare officials are reporting better survival rates for patients with primary or metastatic liver cancer. And while the procedure still involves finding a liver donor, it means that the medical community continues to make progress on what was once considered a devastating diagnosis.
Consider these other statistics about liver cancer and translplants:

  • 20% to 30% of liver transplants are for hepatocellular carcinoma patients.
  • 20,350 people in America die each year from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis.
  • 16,000 patients were on the national waiting list as of October 2012, according to the American Liver Foundation.
  • 75% of the people who are able to have a liver transplant survive for five years or more after this type of surgery.

The Diagnosis Of Pancreatic or Colon Cancer Can Include Several Treatment Options

Like some cases of liver cancer, the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer can involve the decision to have pancreas surgery or a full regimen of all available treatments. You will be trying to defeat the odds that pancreatic cancer is the eighth most common cancer in women and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. Unfortunately, the low pancreatic cancer survival rates are attributed to the fact that fewer than 20% of patient tumors are confined to the pancreas at the time of the diagnosis.
In most cases, for example, the malignancy has already progressed to the point where surgical removal is impossible. Like many kinds of cancer treatment, patients that find clinics that actively involve their clients in the treatment plans and encourage the enrollment into clinical trials when available may see a greater chance of survival. Most importantly, perhaps, is the fact that the client and the family of the client know that every attempt was made to battle the diagnosis.
Colon cancers are often some of the least common kinds of cancer battles that patients have to face. Statistics show, for instance, that the the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is only 4.7% for men and 4.4% for women, indicating that the risk is slightly lower in women than in men. A number of other factors, described in a format of colorectal cancer risk factors, can also affect a person’s risk for developing colorectal cancer.
Although getting the news that you have been diagnosed with cancer is devastating, many families try to set up social media posts or use other national health announcement and progress sites to keep families and friends informed. If you have a friend or a loved one who has shared their cancer diagnosis with you, keep your questions and comments as helpful as possible. Constantly prying for more information is not helpful to the family. On the sites that they use, they will give you the information they are comfortable sharing.

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