u/Sea_Respect_4153

Hi everyone,

My mom is stage 4 with a tumor in the sigmoid colon and a single liver metastasis. On March 11, they removed the liver met, but the primary colon tumor is still there.

On May 15–17, she completed her first round of FOLFOX (no targeted therapy yet). She was prescribed this regimen (6 cycles), and she will have the bowel surgery then. She doesn’t have a port — not available at our hospital. Right now, she’s feeling good.

A couple of questions for anyone with similar experience:

1. How can we support/protect her veins after infusions, especially without a port?
2. Has anyone done a chemo-then-surgery approach? How long after your last chemo infusion did you have surgery? And did they do additional CT/MRI scans in between ?

Thanks so much for any advice.

Hello everyone I will continue to share my mom's story. On March 11, the met in the liver was removed.

Mom had a PET/CT scan, where nodes/lymph nodes (??) in the mesentery of the sigmoid colon fell under suspicion. The doctors decided to play it safe and start with 6 folfox courses. (we are waiting for the results of the genetic analysis for the target). Depending on the dynamics, the operation will be performed after these 6 courses.

After reading a lot of information on the Internet, and here, I understand that this tactic is adequate.

However, I am very worried, I would like to receive words of support and your opinion/experience.

Hey everyone. Unfortunately, I'm here as a new caregiver. My mom was just diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid colon.

But her story is complicated.

At 60, she had a routine colonoscopy and endoscopy. They only found a polyp in her duodenum, which turned out to be a neuroendocrine tumor. So she started getting worked up for that. CT scans showed a spot on her liver – suspected metastasis. But the colonoscopy was clean. So… where did the metastasis come from?

Then they found it: a 2cm tumor in her sigmoid colon. Out of nowhere.

Four months of scans – CT, MRI, endoscopy – and only after all that time did we finally find the real enemy. My family and I are in shock. Her CEA was even normal before her liver surgery.

So here's where we're at:

• Biopsy from the colon tumor shows low-grade cancer.
• Pelvic MRI says the tumor is small, compact, and hasn't grown beyond the intestinal wall (from what we were told).
• The liver met (15mm) was removed.
• Primary tumor is about 25mm.
• Everywhere else is clean so far.

Tomorrow she has a PET scan to figure out next steps – surgery first or straight into chemo.

I've been reading so many stories here from stage 4 folks in treatment or even NED. They give me hope. But I'm still terrified. I just want my mom to have a long life.

Thanks for letting me share our story here.

(Just here for support and to hear from others who've been through something similar.)