1. < Colorectal Cancer

Hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) pump for liver mets

Posted by susan159 @susan159, Dec 13, 2022

Does anybody have any experience with the HAI pump for Colon Cancer that has spread to the liver? My Dr. is telling me that this is my best bet; because After 7 months of chemo I still have way too much cancer in my liver for surgery. So the pump is my only hope of ever shrinking the 10 fairly large tumors in my liver enough to ever have surgery. No one implants the pump locally so I'm going to have to travel and have my surgery across the country. I've been told I will need to be away for at least 2 months getting the surgery, recovering, and getting my pump dosage set up and working. I'm pretty stressed about it all. So if anybody has any positive experience with this pump I would love to hear it. I guess I should hear anything negative too. I have been searching the internet and what I see is pretty positive. But I'm a little suspicious that if this works so well, why is the procedure not more widely available?

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Mentor
Teresa, Volunteer Mentor | @hopeful33250 | Dec 16, 2022

Hello @susan159,

I can really understand you wanting to connect with others who have had this procedure. While we wait for others to respond to your question, I found some information about this chemotherapy pump on The Duke Health website. Here is the link,

https://www.dukehealth.org/blog/chemotherapy-pump-helps-people-metastatic-liver-cancer-live-longer In this article it mentions the promising results.

You mention that you will need to travel in order to have this procedure. Will you have a traveling companion to go with you? What are your main concerns right now?

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Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Dec 16, 2022

Hi @susan159, I believe that @tinad was considering options for liver metastatsis, including hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) pump. She may have experiences to share.

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1 reply
tinad | @tinad | Dec 16, 2022
In reply to @colleenyoung "Hi @susan159, I believe that @tinad was considering options for liver metastatsis, including hepatic artery infusion..." + (show)
@colleenyoung

Hi @susan159, I believe that @tinad was considering options for liver metastatsis, including hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) pump. She may have experiences to share.

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Sorry but I did not have the mentioned procedure, I had a liver section and traditional chemo.

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susan159 | @susan159 | Dec 16, 2022
In reply to @hopeful33250 "Hello @susan159, I can really understand you wanting to connect with others who have had this..." + (show)
@hopeful33250

Hello @susan159,

I can really understand you wanting to connect with others who have had this procedure. While we wait for others to respond to your question, I found some information about this chemotherapy pump on The Duke Health website. Here is the link,

https://www.dukehealth.org/blog/chemotherapy-pump-helps-people-metastatic-liver-cancer-live-longer In this article it mentions the promising results.

You mention that you will need to travel in order to have this procedure. Will you have a traveling companion to go with you? What are your main concerns right now?

Jump to this post

Yes, my husband will travel with me. Although one of my fears is that he will not be able to be with me for appts and surgery because of Covid/RSV/Flu restrictions. It's going to be a pretty big surgery: Colon, part of my liver, gall bladder, and pump insertion all in one surgery is what I've been told. The thought of being in a big strange hospital recovering without any support of family and friends is upsetting to say the least. I hate the thought of recovering so far from home in a hotel/extended stay suite or whatever. These will all be new, strange doctors to me. But I'm sure that my biggest fear is that I'm going to go through all of this and still not have a positive outcome. It's pretty scary. I don't know all the details, but the think the plan is that the HAI pump will eventually shrink my tumors enough to resect them one part of my liver at a time. I really don't know how many surgeries we would be talking about. I have 10 tumors in my liver in all different parts. Until I make the trip and meet the doctors I won't really know what they are thinking.

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1 reply
Mentor
Teresa, Volunteer Mentor | @hopeful33250 | Dec 17, 2022
In reply to @susan159 "Yes, my husband will travel with me. Although one of my fears is that he will..." + (show)
@susan159

Yes, my husband will travel with me. Although one of my fears is that he will not be able to be with me for appts and surgery because of Covid/RSV/Flu restrictions. It's going to be a pretty big surgery: Colon, part of my liver, gall bladder, and pump insertion all in one surgery is what I've been told. The thought of being in a big strange hospital recovering without any support of family and friends is upsetting to say the least. I hate the thought of recovering so far from home in a hotel/extended stay suite or whatever. These will all be new, strange doctors to me. But I'm sure that my biggest fear is that I'm going to go through all of this and still not have a positive outcome. It's pretty scary. I don't know all the details, but the think the plan is that the HAI pump will eventually shrink my tumors enough to resect them one part of my liver at a time. I really don't know how many surgeries we would be talking about. I have 10 tumors in my liver in all different parts. Until I make the trip and meet the doctors I won't really know what they are thinking.

Jump to this post

@susan159

I can certainly understand how difficult this must be for you and your husband. Is your first appointment set? Will it be after the first of the year?

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susan159 | @susan159 | Dec 17, 2022

No the appt. is not set. I need to get another set of scans to make sure I only have cancer in my liver and colon before I would be accepted to have this procedure. Right now my scan is set for 1/23. I'm not sure if they might move that up. I'm kind of planning to try and get through Christmas and then work on pinning down what's going to happen. In the mean time, I'm hoping the family at Christmas will distract me but….It's not easy…Thanks for asking

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ladycatelyn | @ladycatelyn | Apr 3 9:26pm

I have an HAIC pump and it helped me to get to NED status! It did take a bit of getting used to, but I recommend it if you have liver mets like I did. I went to University of Colorado in Denver for my treatment. I'm actually trying to find other hospitals that can help with it, as I would like to relocate away from Colorado but I'm having some difficulty with that.

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