What Is The Life Expectancy Of A Adenocarcinoma Patient With Tumors Of Moderate Size In Both Lobes Of Liver?

Posted on Sun, 29 Dec 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 29 Dec 2013 Answered on

Sat, 18 Jan 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : What is the range of life expectancy for a woman aged 82 recently diagnosed with adenocarcinoma?? affecting head of the pancreas/bile duct area who has 7 or more tumors of moderate size in both lobes of the liver. She has been healthy all her life; just had a stent for the jaundice.

Answered by Dr. Sadiq Mughal (3 hours later)

Brief Answer: Prognosis of any cancer depends upon many factors. Detailed Answer: Hello XXXX. Thanks for writing to us . Life expectancy, mortality and morbidity of any cancer depend upon many factors. Most common factors which effects prognosis of any cancer are; size of tumor, type of cancer ,local spread of cancer, distinct spread of cancer and co morbid conditions like general condition of patient and age of patient. Pancreatic cancer carries poor prognosis, especially when it has spread to liver as in case of your patient. Seven tumors of moderate size in both lobe of liver indicate that the cancer has spread to liver. The life expectancy also depends upon the type of surgical procedure curative or palliative done. In your patient since the cancer has already spread to liver the surgical procedure if any contemplated would be palliative one .In statistical terms life expectancy is calculated from different study performed across the world. In one such study 5 year survival rate after resection was 11.8% with median survival time of 13.8 months. In another study survival was 47% at 2 years and 25% at 5 years after surgery with median survival of 19 months. Yet in another study 3 and 5 year survival rate were 31.5% and 25.04% respectively. Hope this answers your questions Write to me if you have any more questions. Regards. Dr Sadiq

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D