How long can you live with gastric cancer in 4th stage, spread to liver lungs pancrea

hailee_who

My husband's father has been diagnosed with gastric cancer. The doctors cannot do much - pretty much nothing, could not offer even chemo and gave him no chances. How long can you live with cancer in its 4Th stage? The doctors said a few months maybe a year, but did not really want to talk about it.
Do you know anybody that has lived years with it?

serialmom12 · 03-12-2010, 12:37 AM

There is no way of saying. They can't give you a definite answer. My aunt was told 6 months to live without treatment other then pain melds for her lung cancer...she lived for 18 months. The doctors told my mother 6 months to a year and she was gone in a month...my father was gone in 3 they couldn't give us any time frame for him because he had advanced pancreatic cancer. Just enjoy the time you have left with him.

[[stacey.]] · 03-15-2010, 01:37 AM

With that kind of metastasis, it's impossible to predict, which is why the doc is hesitant to do so. My college roomer's dad had metastatic gastric cancer and was told basically the same thing, but this was 20 years ago, when there were far fewer trials and drugs available.

It's a little puzzling that he's not on chemo, either for active or palliative reasons. The chemo doesn't represent a cure, but it can definitely extend life. And there may even be clinical trials he'd qualify for. Obviously some people at this point of the disease choose to simply go quietly, but if he is interested in exploring other options, he should. It would be particularly useful if he could identify an Inc specializing in gastrointestinal cancers.

http://cancercenters.cancer.gov/cancer_centers/cancer-centers-list.html
If you're interested in learning more, here's a list of NCI designated cancer centers by state. These are the ones recognized by NCI as being the best. He might want a second opinion if there's one near him.

cdog18 · 03-17-2010, 01:37 AM

There is no way to set a time limit on how long. Since it is so widespread, I would guess it would be just a few months at best, but I'm not a doctor and just going from my own experience from what I have seen in other people having this much cancer. My brother had it in his lung, pancreas, spine and brain. He lived for 6 weeks after being diagnosed. My father died from gastric cancer and he lived for 3 months after being diagnosed. It did not take long once the cancer has spread to multiple places and is in stage 4. I certainly never heard of anyone living for years or even close to that with this much cancer and no treatment to prolong life being done. I remember the doctors giving both my brother and father up to a year to live and neither of them lasted anywhere near that. Sorry your family has to go through this. My heart goes out to you.

henrywronger · 08-07-2012, 05:03 PM

Cancer is really deadly disease for all, so you can never live long on stage 4 in liver lungs pancreas. They really speedy spread in stage 4 cancer, so you can just pray to god for live painless on this stage and live happily but they really not possible but do it for happiness in your family.