Y-90 liver cancer treatment: What's your experience?

Alfonso 22 I pray the y90 you are doing again helps. These are difficult choices we make and pray the treatment works. As always ask many many questions and make your decision. Cancer is a double speak language in that it changes its language when it finds another area and like a chameleon it changes its course. Doctors and scientists must find the paths that cancer undertakes. I read in England they are doing a type of technique that diverts blood flow to liver and the chemo are sent directly to the liver without toxicity to the rest of the body ..and then the blood is redirected again to the liver to continue as before. I think I have written this therapy correctly here. Look it up as I think it is on trial basis…the cure is somewhere in big pharma options but just imagine the loss of monies on toxic chems that they push…we caregivers who have lost a partner or relative must be proactive and oush for government funding to find the cure for the sake of others.
Senator Klobuchar was diagnosed wiTh cancer, as a government elite she got top care and I assumed she would be coming out fighting for more funding. She is in remission and I pray she is doing well however not a word from her position indicating funding from the government to fund new innovative therapies. Truly sad that our letter officials who have access to the finest health care do not fight more for the ordinary citizens who fight cancer everyday.
We have the finest hospitals in the USA and some the most brilliant minds in medicine, and they need more funding to research.
The cure is within reach we must all speak out and fight for more therapies. I pray that God will give me the strength to speak out loud and clear about this.
May you be blest and May The Holy Spirit guide you, bless you and cure you.
Yiannis

I have bile duct cancer with a 5.2cm growth plus several smaller spots on my liver. I would be interested in hearing about this too.

Hi @rezmo, welcome to the group. Has radioembolization (Y-90) been mentioned as a possible treatment for you? A clinical trial? Is surgery an option for you?

I have y90 three times now and to date its killed everything it's shot at. Went for 10 months with no new tumors them another one popped up. I would get y90 every time they would give it to me.

The process is not bad. They will do a "dry run" called mapping using die so they know where to put the radiation beads. About three weeks late they will do the actual shoot with the radiation beads. It zaps my strength and energy and creates a pain in my side that feels like someone stuck a screwdriver in my side (which they control with meds) then about two weeks later I 'm all good. It has a pretty high effective rate and not near as symptomatic as chemo.

I sure would ask an Interventional Radiology doc about it.

Diane

How do I get on the email list for this group? I have had Y90 this year and would like to stay connected and get updates. Thx

Welcome @gailvar. I see from your settings that you are following the Cancer group of which this discussion is a part. To get emails for every post, please see the instructions with helpful pictures in this blog post
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May I ask what type of cancer you have? How did the Y90 treatment go for you? How are you doing?

Hi Colleen and thanks so much for reaching out! I think I figured out how to get the emails of new notifications so thank you.
My original cancer was squamous cell anal cancer with lymph node involvement. Then it metastasized to the liver.
I was treated for the original tumor and it’s gone but the liver Mets were more concerning.
My dr felt Y90 was the best bet as I was not a surgery candidate.
I have a scan on June 15th to see how it worked. I’m very hopeful.
However it does have side effects and I get daily fevers and extreme fatigue. I’m 4 weeks out from the last procedure.
I’ll keep the group posted as to my results.

Hi Gailvar,

I'm Diane and post on this thread regularly. Because of having Hep C and cirrhosis am a little over two years into liver cancer, HC called hepatocellular carcinoma. I've had two mappings and three radiation shoots with Y90. I'm happy to report every tumor they shot died. They are still there but appear on a CT as just a black hole, The first y90 treatment didn't have many side effects at all but the last two were kind of tough. A lot of fatigue, stomach pain (it felt like I had a screwdriver sticking in my side), loss of appetite. In both cases it lasted 5 weeks and zoom, gone.

My liver is in pretty good shape for having cirrhosis, meld score 7 and normal liver enzymes.
Did you have one or multiple tumors in your liver? I'm anxious to know what you discover on the ct on the 15th. Hope it's all in retreat or dead.

Just a quick question, what hospital are you having this done in?

Hi Diane. Thanks so much for sharing your story and the good wishes. I had 2 Y90 procedures and like you both times were also 5 weeks of struggle. Today is actually my 5th week from the last procedure and I’m not perfect but much better. Mostly fever, fatigue, cough, loss of appetite.
I’m so inspired that your treatment was so successful.!! I will find out on June 15th in my case and report back here.
I had at least 5 liver lesions. I had 2 others that had been cryoablated prior to Y90.
I’m actually not in a hospital for this. Dr Curtis Anderson in the Miami Florida area is my radiologist and he’s the only one in Florida qualified to do it outside of a major hospital. He was recommended by my integrative dr/oncologist. I live in Florida.
Where did you have it done?

Hi I got 1 so far this June 24 will have my 2nd MRI to see how the tumor is reacting. in my case all still good with the Y90 no pain no side affects or any major problems Thanks God I hope we all find a cure for this liver cancer. I just got an e mail from the hospital that there is a new way to do radiation called Proton therapy I am in wisconsin not sure what other treatment will be after my MRI but would give a try to anything that is @ my u w Carbon cancer center. lets stay positive, and have faith so we can stay longer with our family.