Tony Snow--cancer has returned. It is in his liver.

[MADem]

Per MSNBC right now.

[djg21]

1. That is a death sentence.

My understanding is that once cancer metastized to the liver, it is terminal. I lost a family member to colon cancer that had metastized to the liver. He was only 54 years old.

[H2O Man]

6. Not always.

My mother had a tumor in her liver the size of a grapefruit. Locals doctors told her that she had three months to live. She had surgery at Mass General in Boston in 1988, and is still alive. She lives in the house my father built, and while one of my sisters who lives next door helps her out a lot, she can still get out and drive, etc.

[Carni]

12. WOW! It was IN her liver?

That is just amazing that it was removed and she survived.

It's nice to hear of a good outcome like that!

[H2O Man]

15. Yes.

At the time, the surgeon said that patients were living an average of 5 years after this type of surgery.

[Horse with no Name]

16. Very good about your mother.

However, primary liver cancer and liver metastasis are two different things. Since the liver filters blood and lymph, it is a sign that the cells basically have been carried throughout the body when they landed there.
Liver mets is always a poor prognostical sign.:(
Prayers to him and his family.

[H2O Man]

18. Her's was a metastasis. n/t

[Horse with no Name]

19. Wow. I hope you got her genes waterman.

Indeed that is very rare and that would keep you around for a long time.:hug:

[npincus]

17. Fantastic!

Bless your mom. My mother had a radical mastectomy in 1986, a lumpectomy in 1999 and she's well today.

[wicket]

26. Great to hear!

:hug: Mass General is a wonderful hospital, isn't it? That's where I had my surgery.

[MADem]

35. You know, she'd be one helluva research subject. What DOES she have (and you, perhaps)

that enabled her to be cured? Does she have an "immunity" to cancer stem cells? Could her very blood be the basis for a vaccine?

Damn, twenty years, coming up. That's brilliant. L'chaim to your mother!

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. A friend's dad also survived it

18 months ago. They gave him less than 50% chance of beating it and he did. My friend claims the doctors call her dad a miracle, since he is 75 years old.

[philosophie_en_rose]

2. That's really sad. I hope he recovers fully.

He's smarmy to be sure, but no one deserves cancer.

[MADem]

28. Sadly, the impression I'm getting is that recovery might be tough.

If not unlikely.

Everyone at the WH, per the talking heads, is in tears. That suggests a poor outcome ahead.

He's done the "Vow to fight on" statement, too....which is also a rather sad sign.

I can't stand the guy, personally. I think he's a liar, he's the clown who invented the smartass and unthinking "DEFEATOCRATS" insult bomb, he's carried water for every scurrilous GOP attack organ in the land, and he's, to be kind, a sleazy partisan HACK.

But that said, it's just not right that he be taken off the field of combat in this fashion. He should be healthy and well, hale and hearty, and be forced to defend the lousy ideas and failed strategies of his master from that perspective.

I guess that blonde deputy is "IT" for the time being. Will they leave her in place? Or should the question be, how long before BushCo replaces the 'little woman' with a man?

[Kagemusha]

3. I'm no expert but that's very much not good, right?

Like, vastly worse than they expected to be dealing with here...

[IWantAChange]

4. Thoughts & Prayers go out to the Snow family.....

sz

[Skinner]

5. A pre-emptive message from the DU Admins.

I have instructed the moderators that they have my permission to remove wildly inappropriate comments about Tony Snow having cancer, if such comments are posted. I know most DUers would never post such things. But if there are any trolls out there who are thinking of posting such things... Don't.

[xultar]

14. THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!

[Kelly Rupert]

24. Thank you. n/t

[yewberry]

7. I'm sorry to hear that.

Best wishes to him and to his family.

[Eurobabe]

8. This is terrible. So many people so young...

[NoPasaran]

9. I don't know just what it means

But it sure doesn't sound good. My best wishes to him and his family.

[SoFlaJet]

10. Best of luck Tony Snow

get better-hey at least he has the best care possible available to him-oh yea Skinner-you're right DUers have been very civil since the news came out over the weekend...

[npincus]

11. oh shit- that's awful.

My uncle passed away from liver cancer. Very nasty. very awful.

[Catherine Vincent]

13. So sad.

I hope he recovers from this terrible disease. :(

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Oooh, Liver! Not Good!

That is such a conduit to spread it elsewhere. That's a really bad indicator. I would think his prognosis is pretty poor.
The Professor

[Bluerthanblue]

21. the war on terror should be fought against cancer and disease-

our real enemies are not each other, but the illnesses that steal precious days from our time here on earth.

I'm sad to hear that this was not the news he was hoping to hear.

peace
blu

(and thanks Skinner for your mature oversight)

[thereismore]

25. Hear hear! nt

[MADem]

29. Imagine how much further along we'd be if this TERRA money had been spent on cancer.

Tony would be getting a bit of stem cell treatment and would be back to work in no time, being mean to the opposition.

[Kelly Rupert]

31. Possibly. But I don't think anyone's claimed

that stem cells could cure cancer.

[MADem]

32. Well, cancer stem cells are evil, so they'd have to walk back the cat

http://www.stemcellresearchfoundation.org/WhatsNew/March_2007.html#3

So, to be precise, he'd need the vaccine created from the cancer stem cell research:

Immune Response To Cancer Stem Cells May Dictate Cancer’s Course

Adapted from The Rockefeller University

Although stem cells hold incredible promise in the fight against certain diseases, in cancer they’re anything but helpful. In fact, mounting evidence is showing that a tumor’s growth and spread may depend on “cancer stem cells,” which comprise only a very small subset of the tumor. Now, a new study shows that immunity to cancer stem cells may help protect people with a precancerous condition from developing the full-blown disease, and that these cells could be an important target for cancer vaccines.

About three percent of adults over 40 test positive for a condition known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, or MGUS. MGUS itself is relatively benign, but in a small number of cases it progresses into multiple myeloma, a cancer of blood plasma cells. Yet despite the fact that MGUS and myeloma cells are genetically quite similar, researchers had been unable to figure out why most MGUS patients never develop the cancer. In research published today in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Madhav Dhodapkar, associate professor and head of the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy, shows that MGUS patients who naturally develop an immune response to an embryonic stem cell protein, called SOX2, appear to be protected against the development of myeloma.

This immune response, which correlates so closely with clinical outcome, appears to be targeting the cancer stem cells rather than the bulk tumor cells in myeloma—something that gives researchers hope for a completely new approach. “In immunology for the longest time, we’ve tried to focus on targeting bulk tumors. But maybe we should be targeting stem cells,” Dhodapkar says. “You need to target the roots to really kill the tree, but what we’ve been doing is trimming the branches and it hasn’t worked.”

Because the immune systems of MGUS and myeloma patients respond to such different antigens, Dhodapkar also envisions these differences being used to screen for onset of disease in people who otherwise show no sign of disease. And this method could be used not just for myeloma but for any tumor preceded by precancerous lesions. “You could use immune response as a way of screening for all kinds of cancers, because it recognizes cancer at a stage where it can’t be seen by any other method,” he says.

Dhodapkar notes that the study is preliminary and must be confirmed in larger numbers of patients. “This raises more questions than it answers right now,” he says, “but these studies provide new targets which we can develop vaccines and drugs against.”

[gollygee]

22. I'm sorry to hear that

Liver cancer is awful. :( I don't wish illness on anyone.

[Poiuyt]

23. My thoughts and prayers go out to Tony and his family

[Kelly Rupert]

27. Damn. God bless you, Mr. Snow.

Here's hoping to a quick and full recovery.

[jackster]

30. Damn, that's horrible.

Good Luck Tony Snow - fight the good fight. We here at DU are pulling for you.

[LeftishBrit]

33. That is awful!

There seems to be so much bad news lately.

I really hope he can beat the odds on this. Although I don't support him politically, I support everyone who is waging a fight against the terrible enemy cancer.

[Rob H.]

34. Man.

I've had aunts and uncles die from cancer--liver, brain, and pancreatic. Best wishes to Tony. It's not gonna be easy. :(

[youthere]

36. That's so sad...

My thoughts and prayers go out to Tony and his family while they fight this battle. I lost my nest friend to liver cancer 9 years ago, but I can say from the time of her diagnosis, and all through her treatment she maintained a good quality of life, and I wish nothing less for Mr Snow.

[JohnnyLib2]

37. Damn cancer. May cures be found for everyone, every type.

[proud2BlibKansan]

38. Oh no

Isn't that a bad cancer?

[zulchzulu]

39. All the best to he and his family

I hope he makes it through this battle.

[Bake]

41. So is he leaving the White House?

Any word on whether Snowjob will step down as press sec'y?

Bake

[MADem]

42. I doubt he'll go back, save to clean out his desk and say goodbye.

But you never know: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6512290,00.html

Some 153,760 Americans will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year, and more than 52,000 will die of the disease. In about half of colon cancer patients, the disease eventually will spread to the liver, the most common site of metastasis...How long they survive depends on how much of the liver is affected, and how many other parts of the body are, too.

In a small proportion of patients, the liver cancer is contained to a small enough area that it can be cut out. If surgery is not an option, doctors may try to limit the cancer's spread through the liver with radiofrequency ablation, using radiofrequency energy to blast the tumors.

Chemotherapy is a mainstay when the cancer has spread to more than one site, with the hope of controlling, even shrinking, tumors...Chemotherapy can turn cancer into something people can live with, said Dr. James Watson, the attending surgeon at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. ``In this day and age, a diagnosis of a recurrence of colon cancer is far from a death sentence,'' he said.

It was unclear if or when Snow would return to his duties. Perino, the White House's deputy press secretary, is leading the news briefings in his absence, expected to be several weeks even before the discovery that his cancer had come back. She said Snow ``was helping me with talking points'' Tuesday morning even as he disclosed his condition to her.

Perino, who broke into tears as she broke the news publicly, said Snow also gave her some instructions to pass on to reporters: ``Tell them not to bug me.'' He thanked reporters and others for the outpouring of good wishes he has received...