Diagnosed with liver and bile duct cancer. Fatigue, back pain and cough. Survival chances?
Patient: my sister was diagnosed with liver/bile duct cancer in Feb. She is very very tired, no appetite, pain radiates around to her back and as of yesterday I noticed a persistent cough. She was diagnosed as terminal but is going to participate in a clinical trial next week. She feels so "stuffed" in the chest area and coughs while she is talking.One dr said a yr but another hints several months. Should we be preparing for her to leave us soon. She also has some cancer in the cervical area but the dr said we won't worry about that now. Doctor: Hello From your description , your sister seems to have advanced stage cancer. For cancer in hepato-biliary area the treatment are not that good and outcome is also not so good. Lets hope she benefit from clinical trial.  Often overlooked treatment in advanced stage is palliative care.It  helps relieve symptoms, but is not expected to cure the disease. It can be given along with cancer treatment, or can even be cancer treatment. The aim  of palliative care is to improve the quality of your life, or help you feel as good as you can for as long as you can. Sometimes this means using drugs or other measures like physiotherapy etc  to help with symptoms like caugh pain fatigue etc.  Regards