I have a close relative diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas (and liver) due to growths found...?!


Question: I have a close relative diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas (and liver) due to growths found....?
...when she went to the emergency room the other day due to passing out temporarily. They say the images show a 5.4 x 3.3 cm. "mass" (and two smaller two "low attenuation legions" in the liver).

I've talked to doctors but I'm still confused. Does a growth or mass mean it's necessarily cancerous. Can it be a non cancerous growth.? I guess I want to know what makes a growth harmful or cancerous versus non-cancerous or are all growths cancerous.? I'm pretty confused I know.

Is there a use for the CA-19 test at this point.? She doesn't want surgery and the doctors don't want to do non-surgical things like radiation or chemotherapy. Would anything but surgery work.?

Maybe there's another place more appropriate for this question.?Health Question & Answer


Answers:
A growth or mass does not in itself mean it is cancer. People often have these in their bodies and never know it and they never hurt them. What is important is how they look. Cancer has distinct characteristics and is determined by the radiologist. Low attenuation means weakened areas. These types of lesions in the liver are consistent with metastatic disease.

CA-19-9 is often used to help diagnose and help determine response to treatment in patients with pancreatic cancer, but it is not specific to this disease. It would be a standard test to be run in this situation.

With most cancers removing the tumor is the first plan of action. Leaving a single cancer cell behind will allow the cancer to spread, so you can see leaving an entire tumor in the body is not a good idea. However, only 5-20% of pancreatic cancer patients have resectable disease. This is not a simple surgery and I would only want a surgeon very experienced in the procedure doing one on me.

It sounds like all of this just happened and I know sometimes it is difficult to absorb it all at once. However, it sounds like you haven

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