The adrenal mass biopsy results came back Wednesday and Mom had an Oncologist appointment to discuss the findings this morning. 

The primary source of the cancer is the liver with metastases to the adrenal gland.   They took blood to do more testing to look at some indicators around the hereditary nature of this type of cancer.  I don’t know specifically what they are doing, but I’m glad to know they are looking into it.  Doing surgery to remove the adrenal mass is not planned because of the risk of spreading the cancer throughout the rest of the body.  Instead, Mom will do radiation to try to shrink the size of the adrenal mass which is the source of her pain.  There’s not much that can be done with the liver tumors because the cancer has already spread to other areas.  Apparently, livers don’t respond well to radiation.  Mom will be taking some pill that is supposed to slow the growth and/or spread of the existing cancer. 

Bottom line:  The news is not good.   I think Mom’s hope is to stay comfortable and to do everything reasonably possible to shrink the tumors and prevent further growth of the cancer while maximizing the quality of the time she has left.  According to the Oncologist, that could be a few months to 5 years depending on how she responds to the treatments.

We are obviously hoping that the treatments will be very successful and she will be around for a long long time.   Your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated.  Miracles happen every day.

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